Readers of Dissoi Blogoi may recall, from my Top Ten Reasons Why I Started This Blog, the #1 reason: to see if I could prove wrong the first line of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, that every endeavor aims at some good.
But these deep statements have a way of turning out true, no matter what mere human beings attempt. Despite my best efforts, Aristotle has been vindicated once again. To wit:
After Fran O'Rourke's lecture last night at Boston College, I was talking with Andriy Tsintsiruk, a first year grad student at Boston College who hails from Ukraine. Our conversation turned to Dissoi Blogoi. Andriy pointed out--what I hadn't known--that the word БЛАГО (blogo) in Russian simply means 'the Good' (it's how one would render ta0gaqo/n
So there you have it. In trying not to do anything good at all, I managed in fact to attain The Good.
1 comments:
"Attain" or "aim at"? Did you manage to do anything? Or was it simply that you couldn't help doing what we always do in all our endeavors, namely, aim at some good? I think it is something different to claim that Dissoi Blogoi aims at some good and that you have attained The Good. And I think Aristotle would agree with me on this point. After all, the degree to which you attain a good, and the permanence of your possession of it, are not mere givens but must be determined through analysis.
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