| | I have only got about half of the way through this essay on Aristotle and objectivist philosophy, but I really must thank you for taking the time and effort to lay it out so clearly. I went on the internet looking to see if any philosophers based their teachings on a foundation of observed objective reality and found my way here.
It really is a crying shame that I managed to make it through 12 years of public education in the country that spends more on education per student than any country has in the history of the world without learning anything at all about aristotle.
During a recent family visit, I was debating some things with my college-educated sister like religion,evolution, young-earth creationism, cosmology, the big-bang etc. , and in the course of it, it became glaringly obvious to me that the means by which she and I come to KNOW things is fundamentally different.
Without having ever learned anything about Aristotle, I have lived my life since being a teenager according to many of his precepts. I have always based what I know on what I objectively observe and reason to be true. I have always been willing to see what I see, not what I want to see, and let the chips fall where they may in terms of forming a worldview based on those objective observations.
It's been a bit of a lonely road because when you do that, you tend to find yourself holding positions in favor of some things, and opposed to other things, that manage to offend just about everybody who knows what they know based more upon what they have heard, on what they fear, or on what they hope.
When I look at the world, the biggest problem I see is people believing in things that are demonstrably NOT TRUE, and nevertheless being unwilling to accept a different reality because they cant deal with the metaphysical conequences of it.
I have always equated intellectual honesty with moral integrity because of the tragic real-world consequences of following false ideas.
Ralph Waldo Emerson's essays on "heroism" and "spiritual laws" always spoke to my soul and encouraged my willingness to follow truth wherever it leads.
I will enjoy learning more about Aristotle because it sounds as though his basic philosophy codified long-ago , much of what I have adopted intrinsically in my own life. It isnt hard to see his ideas as underpinning a great deal of human progress since he lived, including the idea that a government exists to facilitate the happiness of it's people.
Such a simple yet profound idea, yet so many of my fellow citizens lack that fundamental understanding of their proper relationship to the state and to their fellow man. Probably explains the state of our polis... Thanks again for the great info on Aristotle.
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