Imagine weighing your attributes. On one side is the thought process or contemplation attribute, and on the other is the take action or compulsive side. What way is your scale tipping? During this book Aristotle is brought to help teach young Alexander, not yet Alexander the Great, about contemplation since Alexander will take over the empire from his father, Phillip of Macedon. Aristotle will have to set aside his own priorities and help Alexander realize being a leader is not always act first and ask questions later. Throughout the book the reader will come to realize what has happened in each of their lifetimes that has great affected them and who they have become. The relationship between this student and teacher in this certain situation …show more content…
The author discusses the past of both of these men and how certain experiences somewhat gruesome left a lasting imprint on each of them. This is an overall theme in the book because of the way Aristotle and Alexander behave and present themselves to the world. These past experiences explain attributes of these men. In Aristotle’s case he is a man who from a young age was curious and wanted to gain as much knowledge as possible, ironically since the book is called the The Golden Mean. It is told that when Aristotle was young his father was a doctor and Aristotle would be the same. So as a doctor, Aristotle and his father helped deliver a baby that was breach. In this situation and during the Ancient Greek period medical knowledge was save the baby and the mother would suffer and bleed to death. As a doctor, the father only had one thought save the baby and as soon as the baby was born, himself and Aristotle knew that the mother would die. This made Aristotle think not about what was happening to her body in result of the action but what would become of her body, her mind, her soul. This moment to me showed that Aristotle thought differently than a doctor should. And for Alexander it is made apparent that he was product of war. His attitude and past show him to be a great warrior. He was thrown into battle very young and saw a great amount of blood shed. This life made him more susceptible to being blunt or jaded in his
One of the reasons for Alexander’s military success is because he was brought up by a great military leader. Alexander’s father was King Phillip II of Macedonia, a great military leader himself. When Alexander was a young man, around 16, his father realized his potential and pulled him out of school and put him out on the field to learn (McGill). He also got him a tutor, one of the best in all of history, Aristotle. Alexander’s young life will prove to be one of the largest reasons for his...
Aristotle 's great-souled man is not only an inaccurate depiction of greatness of soul, honour, perfect virtue and human excellence, but also a hypocritical, short-tempered and insensitive human being. Aristotle describes the great-souled man as being the ultimate person but as Fetter points out in Aristotle’s Great-Souled Man: The Limited Perfection of the Ethical Virtues, we see that there are many flaws in his account. This article looks at the contradictory statements being made about Aristotle’s great-souled man by loyal readers of his works, other philosophers and metaphysicians before Aristotle’s time who seem to have a sense for the worth of honour. We see that nearly all of Aristotle’s statements regarding the great-souled man can
Alexander the Great, son of Philip of Macedon took the throne at nineteen years of age in 336BCE and with this single event the Hellenic culture abounded. Philip did not want Alexander to be a course and boorish Macedonian so he gave Alexander a tutor, Aristotle. Between Philip and Aristotle, Alexander was raised in the Hellenic culture. The Hellenic culture’s aim was to...
This book “The Golden Mean”, written by Annabel Lyon is about Aristotle, a genius philosopher who touched the mind of a boy, Alexander The Great, who would eventually conquer the known world. A man of knowledge and wisdom must try to connect with one that only knows of violence and warfare, a challenge he took out of optimism.
Homer and Sophocles are two great classical writers whose stories open windows into the lives of ancient Greek society. Achilles and Antigone are two protagonists that clearly show what Homer and Sophocles considered to be important traits for heroes in their time. Through these authors it is possible to see what values the ancient Greeks held in highest regard. First by comparing and contrasting these two heroes it is possible to see which traits they share, secondly, looking at the both entire work will show what Homer and Sophocles both considered to be important in a hero, and finally, addressing the differences between the two authors will show the importance of other ideals in ancient Greek life.
The author’s thesis argues that Alexander became who he was based on the society he grew up in. Green describes Alexander’s surroundings as “loud, clamorous professional soldiers, who rode or drank or fought or fornicated” (pg. 40). These were the male examples that he had in his life and his father was no different. He was also surrounded by the planning and strategy of war, treachery and conspiracies. His mother Olympia’s which is so popularly known for poisoning young Alexander’s mind against Philip, the author believes is nothing more but a psychological myth. Alexander and Olympia’s did not turn against Philip till 338 BC, when Alexander...
Alexander was a smart man and there was one main person to thank for that, his father. Philip II, knowing that someday his son would be a powerful figure arranged for none other than Aristotle to be Alexander’s tutor. Alexander grew to love his tutor almost as much as his father. Alexander’s favorite book was the Iliad by Homer, it was a story about some of the things he hoped to do when he got older, such as fight in wars. As a youth Alexander also enjoyed hunting and martial arts. Alexander feared that by the time he became king there would be nothing left for him to conquer.
Plato and Aristotle have two distinct views on wellness. However, each man’s opinion on wellness is directly tied in to his respective opinions on the idea of imitation as a form of knowledge. Their appreciation or lack thereof for tragedy is in fact directly correlated to their own perspective on wellness and emotion. Firstly, it is important to consider each man’s view of wellness—that is how does each man go about addressing emotional stability. One important consideration is the approach Plato takes in relation to Aristotle. It is this approach that we will see actually mirroring between how they treat emotional well-being and their tolerance for imitation.
In this essay we will discuss and analyze Aristotle’s Doctrine of the Mean. This topic area can be found in Book II, page 888, 6—15, through 890, 25. The purpose for Aristotle touching on this subject matter was to discern the states of character which are virtuous from those which are not. By this, I mean he is attempting to categorize which virtues are causal of a human “to be in a good state and to perform their functions well”(888—15). In order to keep this paper orderly and comprehensible, we will work in chronological order through Aristotle’s variety of premises and conclusions which lead to his main idea which is ––––––––––––.
The events that conspire prior to the setting of the play create a perfect incubator for a tragic hero to develop. Through the heat of fate and Oedipus’ hubris, Oedipus transforms from a heroic king to a catastrophic excuse for a man. Oedipus loses everyone he loves because of his hasty judgments and arrogant attitude. The play “Oedipus Rex”, exemplifies Aristotle’s assertion of a tragic hero by King Oedipus’ explicit flaw of arrogance, causing his fall from nobility and high estate. Aristotle’s concept of a tragic hero is woven into the plot of “Oedipus Rex”.
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Reading the book, Fire From Heaven by Mary Renault, one would question whether Alexander’s destiny is directed more towards nature or nurture. Nature played an important role in Alexander’s life as well as nurture. Taking a closer look into his talents and abilities, the relationships he has with others, and how both of these were able to meld into each other to help balance for Alexander’s benefit. This will show how Alexander was nurtured into his destiny and how nature helped him achieve his destiny.
...rts of the soul in order to find the function of human beings which is activity in accordance with reason. It is first in this function that men ought to be virtuous. It is thanks to the same distinction that Aristotle gives the different types of virtues. However while Aristotle dedicates most of his piece to the practical, active aspects of virtue it is necessary to keep in mind the virtues of the life of study which is reintroduced in the chapters 7 and 8 of book X. Thus what appears as a contradiction in these chapters is in fact a reminder and a justification of the honourable and divine aspect of the life of study which is necessary to reach complete happiness.
Have you ever wondered why Alexander from Macedonia is called Alexander the Great. According to history, it is because he is the most glorious general in the history who conquered Persia, Greece, Egypt and Babylon in a very inexperienced age. He became the commander of Macedonian armies at age eighteen and the king of Macedonia at age twenty. After six years of preparation, he conquered the great Persian empire. Unfortunately, he died at age thirty-three. He would have conquered many lands if he hadn’t died at a such young age. He was a legend and an icon for great kings like Charlemagne, Julius Caesar, and Pompey. World’s most famous generals tried to compete with him but they couldn’t accomplish. After years, his tomb
While this change, as well as the changes in play production and the culture in the audience that views these plays, has had a great impact on the evolution of the tragedy, the basic ideas laid down by Aristotle remain adhered to, if not always in the way he wrote them. The tragic hero, Willy Loman, is of little virtue, being in financial trouble and growing more and more reminiscent in his old age. His fall is aided by his tragic flaw, that his pride in “selling yourself” will get one anywhere hey need to be in life, slowly tears his life apart, as well as creating unrealistic expectations of his son, thus bringing his demise. The play arouses fear and pity just as well as any classical work, possibly even more effectively due to the reatability of the “common man.” Just as in The Hairy Ape, the tragic hero dies, forcing the underlying evil on to the audience. This evolution to the common man can be explained through the evolution of society alongside tragedy. In the time of Aristotle, the best way to make a commentary on both societal and familial issues was through the eyes of nobility, which dealt with both. As time went on, however, the emergence of new societal and social issues such and women’s or worker’s rights led to the more effective tragic hero to be that of the “common man,” for they saw these issues in a was the aristocracy never could. These societal changes combined with the readability of the common man led to a shift in the tragic hero, yet never changed the underlying meaning of tragedy laid down in Aristotle’s