What makes a complex proposition be what it is? It must fulfil its promise: it keeps its character only if the parts it is composed of are true.
What makes a disjunctive proposition? It must fulfil its purport.
Is not the same true of flutes, lyre, horse, and dog? Is it surprising then that man too keeps or loses his nature on the same principle?
Each man is strengthened and preserved by the exercise of the functions that correspond to his nature, the carpenter by carpentering, the grammarian by studies in grammar. If a man gets the habit of writing ungrammatically, his art is bound to be destroyed and perish.
In the same way the modest man is made by modest acts and ruined by immodest acts, the man of honor keeps his character by honest acts and loses it by dishonest.
So again, men of the opposite character are strengthened by the opposite actions: the shameless man by shamelessness, the dishonest by dishonesty, the slanderous by slander, the ill-tempered by ill-temper, the miser by grasping at more than he gives.
That is why philosophers enjoin upon us “not to be content with learning only, but to add practice as well and then training”.
For we have acquired wrong habits in course of years and have adopted for our use conceptions opposite to the true, and therefore if we do not adopt true conceptions for our use we shall be nothing else but interpreters of judgements which are not our own.
What makes a disjunctive proposition? It must fulfil its purport.
Is not the same true of flutes, lyre, horse, and dog? Is it surprising then that man too keeps or loses his nature on the same principle?
Each man is strengthened and preserved by the exercise of the functions that correspond to his nature, the carpenter by carpentering, the grammarian by studies in grammar. If a man gets the habit of writing ungrammatically, his art is bound to be destroyed and perish.
In the same way the modest man is made by modest acts and ruined by immodest acts, the man of honor keeps his character by honest acts and loses it by dishonest.
So again, men of the opposite character are strengthened by the opposite actions: the shameless man by shamelessness, the dishonest by dishonesty, the slanderous by slander, the ill-tempered by ill-temper, the miser by grasping at more than he gives.
That is why philosophers enjoin upon us “not to be content with learning only, but to add practice as well and then training”.
For we have acquired wrong habits in course of years and have adopted for our use conceptions opposite to the true, and therefore if we do not adopt true conceptions for our use we shall be nothing else but interpreters of judgements which are not our own.
—from Epictetus, Discourses 2.9
Aristotle offers a similar argument about isolating our human function in his Nicomachean Ethics, passages I have always gone over in detail with my students, though I fear that they usually give me a glazed expression, confused about the prospect of employing reason in the realm of morality. They are accustomed to treating right and wrong as a matter for sentiment alone, comfortably subjective and conveniently vague.
We live in especially odd times, when there has never been more precision in engineering, chemistry, or accounting, and yet we remain so sloppy at crafting a conscience. While a man can describe his trade in the greatest detail, he is tongue-tied when it comes to explaining his most basic values. What a relief it is to finally learn that a refined understanding is the key to coping with raw emotions!
How am I to desire the good, if I do not first know what is good? The purpose of anything is revealed by grasping its identity, such that the mechanic is acquainted with the workings of an engine, and the writer is fluent in the meaning of words, and the sage is informed on the powers of the soul. Not all of us need to fix cars, and not all of us will write poetry, but all of us are called to human excellence.
We become good by exercising the virtues, which bring us into harmony with Nature. Now as much as the intellectual would like to believe that pondering a truth is sufficient, it is only practice that can make perfect. Some habits will raise us up, and other habits will also bring us down, and it is sound judgement that allows us to discern the critical difference.
Whenever a change of behavior seemed too difficult for me to make, it was always because of my own entrenched tendencies, not because the undertaking itself was impossible. I can attribute any improvements in my character to a patient diligence, where each repetition, however insignificant it initially seems, is a worthy contribution to the whole.
The musician commits to the tedium of playing his scales, and the soldier submits to the drudgery of following his drills. They are willing to endure the discipline of their arts for the sake of noble ends, secure in the knowledge that the ideal only becomes real through constancy.
Aristotle offers a similar argument about isolating our human function in his Nicomachean Ethics, passages I have always gone over in detail with my students, though I fear that they usually give me a glazed expression, confused about the prospect of employing reason in the realm of morality. They are accustomed to treating right and wrong as a matter for sentiment alone, comfortably subjective and conveniently vague.
We live in especially odd times, when there has never been more precision in engineering, chemistry, or accounting, and yet we remain so sloppy at crafting a conscience. While a man can describe his trade in the greatest detail, he is tongue-tied when it comes to explaining his most basic values. What a relief it is to finally learn that a refined understanding is the key to coping with raw emotions!
How am I to desire the good, if I do not first know what is good? The purpose of anything is revealed by grasping its identity, such that the mechanic is acquainted with the workings of an engine, and the writer is fluent in the meaning of words, and the sage is informed on the powers of the soul. Not all of us need to fix cars, and not all of us will write poetry, but all of us are called to human excellence.
We become good by exercising the virtues, which bring us into harmony with Nature. Now as much as the intellectual would like to believe that pondering a truth is sufficient, it is only practice that can make perfect. Some habits will raise us up, and other habits will also bring us down, and it is sound judgement that allows us to discern the critical difference.
Whenever a change of behavior seemed too difficult for me to make, it was always because of my own entrenched tendencies, not because the undertaking itself was impossible. I can attribute any improvements in my character to a patient diligence, where each repetition, however insignificant it initially seems, is a worthy contribution to the whole.
The musician commits to the tedium of playing his scales, and the soldier submits to the drudgery of following his drills. They are willing to endure the discipline of their arts for the sake of noble ends, secure in the knowledge that the ideal only becomes real through constancy.
—Reflection written in 7/2001
IMAGE: Edwin Austin Abbey, Baron Steuben Drilling American Troops at Valley Forge (c. 1910)
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