Aristotle on Money and Happiness

                                                             Aristotle
                                                                       
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great, who lived in the fourth century, BC.  Contrary to Plato, he believed in freedom, although he was not overly fond of democracy. He preferred an ideal kingship, but recognized that few kings lived up to his ideal and that kingship typically turns into tyranny. Democracy, in his view the corrupted form of constitutional government, is not so bad a perversion as tyranny.

He was an advocate of the middle class.  He thought reason to be the way to greatest happiness and  happiness to be the ultimate good.  Morality was based, in his view, on virtues, habits or states of character in accordance with the right rule learned from childhood. Virtues include  moral virtues like courage, temperance and justice.  Other moral virtues include good temper, tact and interpersonal skills, generosity or liberality, the ability to virtuously make (or at least have) money, the magnificence of a generous man of great wealth,  and the ability to succeed in the political world of the Athenian democracy.  He views virtuous behavior as appropriate in a given situation, the mean or optimal way of behaving.  As well, Aristotle emphasized the intellectual virtues of philosophic wisdom, science, intuitive understanding, practical wisdom, and knowledge of crafts or skills.  Practical wisdom involves applying a particular to a general principle. Excellent deliberation succeeds in attaining the ends sought.  There is no conflict between success in what today we would call the economic sense and morality.  Rather, economic success would have been inconceivable to Aristotle as success were it not virtuous. 

Aristotle saw the highest virtue as a life dedicated to philosophy and thought.  But he was a realist.  He did not see money as the root of all evil. Rather, the virtues are a unity. For instance, one cannot be successful without being truthful. That is a far cry from today's post-Enlightenment world, where ethics and the ability to be successful are viewed as contradictory.

 In the final book of his Nicomachean Ethics he discusses the link between money and a life devoted to philosophical wisdom:

"But, being a man, one will also need external prosperity; for our nature is not self-sufficient for the purpose of contemplation, but our body must be healthy and must have food and other attention. Still, we must not think that the man who is to be happy will need many things or great things, merely because he cannot be supremely happy without external goods; for self-sufficiency and action do not involve excess, and we can do noble acts without ruling earth and sea; for even with moderate advantages one can act virtuously (this is manifest enough; for private persons are thought to do worthy acts no less than despots--indeed, even more); and it is enough that we should have so much as that; for the life of the man who is active in accordance with virtue will be happy.  Solon, too, was perhaps sketching well the happy man when he described him as moderately furnished with externals but as having done (as Solon thought) the noblest acts, and lived temperately;  for one can with but moderate possessions do what one ought. Anaxagoras also seems to have supposed the happy man not to be rich nor a despot, when he said that he would not be surprised if the happy man were to seem to most people a strange person; for they judge by externals, since externals are all they perceive. The opinions of the wise seem, then, to harmonize with our arguments.  But while even such things carry some conviction, the truth in practical matters is discerned from the facts of life, and if it harmonizes with the facts we must accept it, but if it clashes with them we must suppose it to be mere theory.  Now he who exercises his reason and cultivates it seems to be both in the best state of mind and most dear to the gods. For if the gods have any care for human affairs, as they are thought to have, it would be reasonable both that they should delight in that which was best and most akin to them...And that all these attributes belong most of all to the philosopher is manifest. He therefore, is dearest to the gods. And he who is that will presumably be the happiest..."

Stop Regulation of the Internet

Mike Marnell just forwarded this e-mail from Americans for Prosperity urging you to write your Congressman and Senators to oppose the Obama administration's attempt to regulate the Internet.  I wrote the following letter:

Dear Congressman Hinchey/Senator Schumer/Senator Gillibrand:

I oppose Julius Genachowski's and President Obama's efforts to squelch freedom of speech on the Internet.  The Internet does not need regulation, especially from a bonehead like Mr. Genachowski.  The very proposal is evidence of the authoritarian, fascistic intent of the Obama Administration and the Democratic Party.

Sincerely,

Mitchell Langbert


>Washington wants to take over everything it can get its hands on. The banks. Insurance companies. Automakers. Our health care.

Now Obama FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has set his sights on taking over the Internet, and we're launching a major national effort to stop him.

Too many dominoes have already fallen. We need to hold the line. The Internet as is exists now is the most powerful tool for grassroots activism and communication that the world has ever known. We simply cannot risk allowing the FCC to succeed in its efforts to impose heavy-handed regulation by "reclassifying" the Internet as an old-fashioned public utility.

Today we are launching a major national effort to educate and mobilize Americans against this newest threat. Check out our new ad, which is running nationally starting today, on http://www.nointernettakeover.com/.

Robert McChesney, founder of the left-wing group Free Press (whose communications director was hired by FCC Chairman Genachowski to assist his effort to regulate the Internet) is honest about the stakes, telling SocialistProject.ca: "What we want to have in the U.S. and in every society is an Internet that is not private property, but a public utility."

Please take a moment right now to head over to http://www.nointernettakeover.com/ and view our new national TV ad called "Dominoes." If you like the ad, please consider clicking on the donate button. Your donation will help keep the ad on the air to educate and mobilize more Americans to demand that Congress step in and stop the FCC's Internet power grab.

The new site also has a petition that I hope you'll sign, and tools to write Congress and demand they stop the FCC. Chairman Genachowski and his two Democratic allies at the FCC could, with just their three votes, take over a sector of our economy roughly the same size as health care.

Congress cannot let that happen. As the legitimate legislative branch, Congress must step up and take responsibility. And we need to send a clear message that if this Congress will not stop the FCC's Internet takeover, we need to elect one that will.

With your help we can finally stop Washington's takeover streak.

Tim

P.S. Please forward this email to your friends and share our new www.NoInternetTakeover.com site on Facebook and Twitter. We need to make this a major issue so that Washington will understand that we're paying attention and will not accept another big government takeover. Thanks.

Why Might Obama Use a Connecticut-Based Social Security Number?

According to World Net Daily President Obama uses a Social Security number based in Connecticut (h/t Jim Crum).  WND writes that it:

"has copies of affidavits filed separately in a presidential eligibility lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia by Ohio licensed private investigator Susan Daniels and Colorado private investigator John N. Sampson.


"The investigators believe Obama needs to explain why he is using a Social Security number reserved for Connecticut applicants that was issued at a date later than he is known to have held employment."

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about questions like this is the religious fervor with which the Democratic Party media outlets insist that raising  them is taboo.

Ron Paul on Vitter Amendment

Mike Marnell forwarded this video, which appears on the Daily Paul site.  As NPR reports, a weaker "audit the Fed" bill put forward by Senator Bernie Sanders had been approved 96-0.  NPR explains the difference between the Vitter amendment and the Sanders bill:

"The Grayson-Paul bill authorizes audits by the Government Accountability Office of every item on the Federal Reserve's balance sheet, including all credit facilities and all securities purchase programs; there would be exemption only for unreleased transcripts, minutes of closed-door meetings and the most recent decisions of the central bank. The Senate measure is narrower in its focus, but it would require the GAO to scrutinize some several trillion dollars in emergency lending that the Fed provided to big banks after the September, 2008, economic meltdown."

The Fed should be open to everyone's scrutiny.  Better yet, it should not exist. The recent "bailouts" of private Wall Street firms and now foreign governments such as Greece highlight the unconstrained power of the Fed to deprive the American public of its wealth at the whim of insiders, international bankers and greedy government officials.