EuroPean School of Luxembourg-Mamer : Philosophical Youth Conference.

7 October 2016.

Topic 1:

• Based on Aristotle’s biography and the fact that Aristotle was a “metic” *, discuss what it means for a person to live as a “stranger”, an immigrant with no rights, in a city / state / nation?
• Do we/you have any duties or obligations towards the “stranger in our midst”?

*Metic /métoikoi/ was the name given to an immigrant/foreigner living in a Greek city.  He usually possessed no political rights (rights of citizenship), and he was clearly distinguished from the citizens of a city (polis) in 5th and 4th century B.C.

Topic 2:

Aristotle apparently gave the following advice to Alexander the Great: "To the Greeks you shall behave as their leader, to the barbarians as their master; the first (the Greeks) you will think of as your friends and family; the latter (the barbarians), as if they are illogical beings, you have been tasked to feed"

(From Plutarch: "Concerning Alexander's luck or virtue" A’6).

• Whilst considering both past and present “norms”, and cultural assumptions, discuss how we should, or should not, welcome and accept people from different countries and cultures.

 

Topic 3

ARISTOTLE’S POLITICS 1

(TEXT Ι. ἄνθρωπος: ζῷον πολιτικὸν/ man is by nature a political animal (1.1252b 25…)

The partnership finally composed of several villages is the city-state; it has at last attained the limit of virtually complete self-sufficiency (αὐτάρκεια), and thus, while it comes into existence for the sake of life, it exists for the good life (εὖζῆν). Hence every city-state exists by nature (πόλις φύσει ἔστιν), inasmuch as the first partnerships so exist; for the city-state is the end (τέλος) of the other partnerships, and nature is an end, since that which each thing is when its growth is completed we speak of as being the nature of each thing, for instance of a man, a horse, a household. Again, the object for which a thing exists, its end, is its chief good; and self-sufficiency is an end, and a chief good (καὶ τέλος καὶ βέλτιστον).

From these things therefore it is clear that the city-state is a natural growth, and that man is by nature a political animal (ὁ ἄνθρωπος φύσει πολιτικὸν ζῷον), and a man that is by nature and not merely by fortune citiless is either low in the scale of humanity or above it like the “clanless, lawless, hearthless” man reviled by Homer, for one by nature unsocial is also ‘a lover of war’）inasmuch as he is solitary, like an isolated piece at draughts.

(TEXT II. πολίτης: ὁ μετέχων κρίσεως καὶ ἀρχῆς /the right to participate in judicial functions and in office (3.1275a - 3.1275b 20)

[...] and citizenship is not constituted by domicile in a certain place for resident aliens and slaves share the domicile of citizens, nor are those citizens who participate in a common system of justice, conferring the right to defend an action and to bring one in the law-cour（for this right belongs also to the parties under a commercial treaty, [...] A citizen pure and simple is defined by nothing else so much as by the right to participate in judicial functions and in office. [...] What constitutes a citizen is therefore clear from these considerations: we now declare that one who has the right to  participate in deliberative or judicial office is a citizen of the state in which he has that right, and a state is a collection of such persons sufficiently numerous, speaking broadly, to secure independence of life.

In short: According to Aristotle, a "citizen" is by nature a political animal, participating in political and judicial processes.

• Discuss to what extent you think it is essential, or not, for the “common good” for individuals – whether citizens or not -  to participate in political life.
• How important is citizen participation for a well-functioning democracy?

Topic 4

(TEXT ΙΙΙ.Slave: κτῆμά τι ἔμψυχον (1253b)

Since therefore property is a part of a household and the art of acquiring property a part of household management（for without the necessaries even life, as well as the good life, is impossible, and since, just as for the particular arts it would be necessary for the proper tools to be forthcoming if their work is to be accomplished, so also the manager of a household must have his tools, and of tools some are lifeless and others living（for example, for a helmsman the rudder is a lifeless tool and the look-out man a live tool —for an assistant in the arts belongs to the class of tools, so also an article of property is a tool for the purpose of life, and property generally is a collection of tools, and a slave is a live article of property (καὶὁδοῦλοςκτῆματιἔμψυχον).

And every assistant is as it were a tool that serves for several tools; for if every tool could perform its own work when ordered, or by seeing what to do in advance, like the statues of Daedalus in the story, or the tripods of Hephaestus which the poet says ‘enter self-moved the company divine, —if thus shuttles wove and quills played harps of themselves, master-craftsmen would have no need of assistants and masters no need of slaves.

Aristotle, in accordance with the norms of his times, characterizes slaves as "live articles of property" and considers them necessary tools in production. His view of ethics and of human significance was based on how we each fulfilled and perfected our “function” – whether carpenter, soldier, master or slave.

• Do you agree with Aristotle that slavery is an inevitable part of human culture(s)?
• Discuss what forms of slavery exist today and what ethical, political and economic issues are involved.

 

Topic 5

ARISTOTLE’S POLITICS 2

(TEXT V. Types of Democracy (4.1291b - 1292a)

The first kind of democracy therefore is the one which receives the name chiefly in respect of equality. For the law of this sort of democracy ascribes equality to the state of things in which the poor have no more prominence than the rich, and neither class is sovereign, but both are alike; for assuming that freedom is chiefly found in a democracy, as some personssuppose, and also equality, this would be so most fully when to the fullest extent all alike share equally in the government. And since the people are in the majority, and a resolution passed by a majority is paramount, this must necessarily be a democracy. This therefore is one kind of democracy, where the offices are held on property qualifications, but these low ones, although it is essential that the man who acquires the specified amount should have the right to hold office, and the man who loses it should not hold office.

And another kind of democracy is for all the citizens that are not open to challenge to have a share in office, but for the law to rule; and another kind of democracy is for all to share in the offices on the mere qualification of being a citizen, but for the law to rule.

Aristotle in "Politics", refers to some types of democracy and identifies some of its basic features.

• Discuss to what extent his views can be applied to contemporary democracies.
• What do you consider to be the essential components of a democracy, as opposed to a populist or authoritarian state?
• What are the philosophical and practical strengths and weaknesses of democratic systems?

 

Topic 6

ARISTOTLE’S POLITICS 3

(TEXT VI. The Role of Education (1337a] 11 - 1337b)

It is clear then that there should be legislation about education and that it should be conducted on a public system. But consideration must be given to the question, what constitutes education and what is the proper way to be educated. At present there are differences of opinion as to the proper tasks to be set; for all peoples do not agree as to the things that the young ought to learn, either with a view to virtue or with a view to the best life, nor is it clear whether their studies should be regulated more with regard to intellect or with regard to character. And confusing questions arise out of the education that actually prevails, and it is not at all clear whether the pupils should practise pursuits that are practically morally edifying, or higher accomplishments—for all these views have won the support of some judges; and nothing is agreed as regards the exercise conducive to virtue, for, to start with, all men do not honor the same virtue, so that they naturally hold different opinions in regard to training in virtue.

It is therefore not difficult to see that the young must be taught those useful arts that are indispensably necessary; but it is clear that they should not be taught all the useful arts, those pursuits that are liberal being kept distinct from those that are illiberal, and that they must participate in such among the useful arts as will not render the person who participates in them vulgar. A task and also an art or a science must be deemed vulgar if it renders the body or soul or mind of free men useless for the employments and actions of virtue.

Aristotle considered that the aim of education was to make man capable  -  via training - of serving "virtue" and of attaining a moral character.

• Do you agree/disagree?  Why/why not, and to what extent?
• Discuss what an ideal educational system might be comprised of, including your view(s) on whether a school has any responsibility for moral training.

 

Topic 7

ARISTOTLE’S NICOMACHEAN ATHICS

(TEXT VII. Virtue: μεσότης (1106b)

If therefore the way in which every art or science performs its work well is by looking to the mean and applying that as a standard to its productions （hence the common remark about a perfect work of art, that you could not take from it nor add to it—meaning that excess and deficiency destroy perfection, while adherence to the mean preserves it）—if then, as we say, good craftsmen look to the mean as they work, and if virtue, like nature, is more accurate and better than any form of art, it will follow that virtue has the quality of hitting the mean. I refer to moral virtue, for this is concerned with emotions and actions, in which one can have excess or deficiency or a due mean.

For example, one can be frightened or bold, feel desire or anger or pity, and experience pleasure and pain in general, either too much or too little, and in both cases wrongly; whereas to feel these feelings at the right time, on the right occasion, towards the right people, for the right purpose and in the right manner, is to feel the best amount of them, which is the mean amount—and the best amount is of course the mark of virtue. And similarly there can be excess, deficiency, and the due mean in actions. Now feelings and actions are the objects with which virtue is concerned; and in feelings and actions excess and deficiency are errors, while the mean amount is praised, and constitutes success; and to be praised and to be successful are both marks of virtue.  Virtue, therefore is a mean state in the sense that it is able to hit the mean.

"Virtue" according to Aristotle is the “mean” i.e. a middle point between excesses e.g. between the excesses of cowardice and recklessness is the desired mean of courage.

• Discuss the pros and cons of Aristotle’s view of what is virtuous and moral.  
• What is “excess”?
• What problems can arise when trying to define a moral action and/or a moral character?

Topic 8

(TEXT VIII. habits: ἕξεις (1103b. 7 – 8)

The same then is true of the virtues. It is by taking part in transactions with our fellow-men that some of us become just and others unjust; by acting in dangerous situations and forming a habit of fear or of confidence we become courageous or cowardly. And the same holds good of our dispositions with regard to the appetites, and anger; some men become temperate and gentle, others profligate and irascible, by actually comporting themselves in one way or the other in relation to those passions. In a word, our moral dispositions are formed as a result of the corresponding activities. Hence it is incumbent on us to control the character of our activities, since on the quality of these depends the quality of our dispositions. It is therefore not of small moment whether we are trained from childhood in one set of habits or another; on the contrary it is of very great, or rather of supreme, importance.

The power of habit in the lives of people was first acknowledged by Aristotle in "Ethics".  Different forms of habit play an important role in our personal, social and cultural lives (from clothing, to how we eat/drink, to how we greet and thank, to what we may say or not say, to religious or formal rituals, to addiction, etc.). 

• Discuss some of your personal and social/cultural habits and what their function may be for you/us as individuals and within cultures.
• To what extent, and in what ways, may different forms of habit positively or negatively influence your/our lives?