Aristotle’s philosophy

Here is the write-up I submitted on Aristotle for my institute elective, Philosophy of Life.

Aristotle raises the question of what is a meaningful life. To answer this, he analyzes the nature of man. According to Aristotle, man is a rational being. Reason is universal to humans, ie. all individuals have the faculty of reason, though different individuals may use this faculty up to different capacities. The faculty of reason is a-temporal and a-spacial.

There are three parts of human soul. Starting from the most the basic to the complex, they are

1. Vegetative – It governs the needs of man
2. Spirited – It governs the desires and passions
3. Rational – Its object is to govern the other two governing souls. This is what makes humans unique and different from animals.

Since, man is a rational being, every action he takes has a direction, not just a movement and has a meaning attached to it. Every action is performed aimed at some end or goal. Action entails choice which further entails reason to make that choice. Hence, man is an agent whose every action follows the path of choice, reason, judgment and finally the act. An action is a means to some end, which may further translate to some other means and so on. Aristotle argues that this cycle of means and ends must have an ultimate end, otherwise there would be a fallacy of infinite regression or a fallacy of circularity and the ends would be meaningless. This pursuit of ends is represented like a pyramid with its top as the end-in-itself.

This ultimate goal of life is called eudaimonia and translated as happiness. There are two demands of end-it-self:

1. Self-sufficiency – It should be complete in itself
2. Absolute/eternal/universal  and non-transferable

Using the above two demands, he establishes that other claimants like pleasure, honor and wealth cannot be end-in-itself. According to Aristotle, happiness is a state of being, an existence in totality, towards which all actions should be aimed at.

Though man is a rational being, reason may not always be the dominant governing force. Man is usually governed by his desires and passions (animal aspect of soul). Humans have a weakness of will, called akrasia. The true and supreme nature of man is one with rationality. Only a life in harmony with nature can be meaningful. Humans are agents and involve in judgments. All judgments have a notion of “good” (ethical good). Hence we all operate with a notion of “good”. A meaningful life is one composed of rational actions. Humans have to be rational about their animal spirit. Desires and passions are a-rational and if left to themselves they can be extreme. Thus Aristotle proposes the theory of golden mean for a meaningful life. Here mean is one between rational and animal aspect of soul and a moderation based on rationality.

New World, New Experiences

There are two things that I love a lot - travelling and adventure sports. So when I got a chance to go Tarkarli beach with my friends, I was more than delighted. The sea, beaches, waves, forts, islands, coconut trees, fishes, coral reefs made my trip a memorable experience.

I did scuba diving for the second time (first time was in Nice, France). I was so excited and could feel the adrenalin surging though my veins. I was more confident and comfortable breathing underwater this time. It was so tranquilizing. There is a whole new world underwater and you feel like exploring every drop of water in the ocean, swimming alongwith the fishes, just staying there and observing the marine beauty – coral reefs, different kinds of flora and fauna. I went around 30 feet under water. I could touch the sea bed covered with golden sand embedded with shells. I wish to do scuba diving again and this time alone, without an instructor. 

The beaches were very clean and isolated unlike those of Bombay or Goa. I sat there on the beach, observing the sun set, waves crash into the shore and winds blow off my hair. And thought that this is life, nature in its very best. I want a house on the beach where I could do this every day and wake up early morning to run along the shore, sit on the beach and read my novel, run in the sea against the waves and make a necklace out of the numerous, multi-shaped shells on the beach. 

What is it about gazing at the night sky, or looking at the horizon above the sea, or exploring the marine life make us so happy? I guess it is the realization that life is bigger than our preconceived notions and the fact we are also a part, howsoever small, of this beautiful nature. Our mundane problems in life seem so small and insignificant in front of this higher beauty. It inspires us to be a perfect, peaceful and beautiful human being just like and in harmony with nature. 

Few items in my bucket list which I wish to do are

• Learn skiing (My dad just attended a week's skiing camp in Gulmarg, Kashmir. The temperatures fell down to as low as -20 deg C and it snowed almost daily!)
• Sky dive
• And travel around the world (link to some awesome places)