“Ne Quid Nimis.” Kierkegaard and the Virtue of Temperance

2014 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rob Compaijen

AbstractIn this article I argue that-despite Kierkegaard’s seemingly harsh critique of temperance-it plays a crucial role in the ethics he worked out under the pseudonym of Anti-Climacus in The Sickness unto Death and Practice in Christianity. Anti-Climacus, following Socrates in the Philebus, thinks of the good life as a “mixed” life in which the different and opposed dimensions of human existence, peras and apeiron, are in due proportion. In Anti-Climacus’ ethics the process of realizing the “mixed” life does not, contra the Socratic conception, involve reason restricting desire, but, instead, the will (infused with self-knowledge) grounding imagination in the facticity of human existence. It is through this perfectionist process that we are able to imitate Christ, which is how Anti- Climacus ultimately understands the good life. Moreover, I suggest that we could understand this form of temperance as a virtue. In the conclusion I show that Kierkegaard’s seeming critique of temperance is actually a critique of mediocrity

Good Lives ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 3-124
Author(s):  
Samuel Clark

Part I investigates a wide range of autobiographies, alongside work on the history and literary criticism of autobiography, on narrative, and on the philosophies of the self and of the good life. It works from the point of view of the autobiographer, and considers what she does, what she aims at, and how she achieves her effects, to answer three questions: what is an autobiography? How can we learn about ourselves from reading one? About what subjects does autobiography teach? This part of the book develops, first, an account of autobiography as paradigmatically a narrative artefact in a genre defined by its form: particular diachronic compositional self-reflection. Second, an account of narrative as paradigmatically a generic telling of a connected temporal sequence of particular actions taken by, and particular events which happen to, agents. It defends rationalism about autobiography: autobiography is in itself a distinctive and valuable form of ethical reasoning, and not merely involved in reasoning of other, more familiar kinds. It distinguishes two purposes of autobiography, self-investigation and self-presentation. It identifies five kinds of self-knowledge at which autobiographical self-investigation typically aims—explanation, justification, self-enjoyment, selfhood, and good life—and argues that meaning is not a distinct sixth kind. It then focusses on the book’s two main concerns, selfhood and good life: it sets out the wide range of existing accounts, taxonomies, and tasks for each, and gives an initial characterisation of the self-realization account of the self and its good which is defended in Part II.


Good Lives ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-2
Author(s):  
Samuel Clark

Reasoning with autobiography is a way to self-knowledge. We can learn about ourselves, as human beings and as individuals, by reading, thinking through, and arguing about this distinctive kind of text. Reasoning with Edmund Gosse’s Father and Son is a way of learning about the nature of the good life and the roles that pleasure and self-expression can play in it. Reasoning with Siegfried Sassoon’s ...


2015 ◽  
Vol 77 (4) ◽  
pp. 653-659 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy Luxon

Charles Taylor opens the essay “Foucault on Freedom and Truth” with the stark claim: “Foucault disconcerts.” Foucault disconcerts, on Taylor's reading, because he appears to repudiate both freedom and truth. Where other Western thinkers have sought to “[make] ordinary life the significant locus of the issues that distinguish the good life,” the Foucault of Discipline and Punish seems to refuse this Enlightenment valuation. After puzzling alongside Foucault, and the implications of his thought for freedom and truth, Taylor finally queries what drives Foucault to adopt a Nietzschean model of truth and argues to the contrary that we can trust in progressive change from one form of life to another because its politics intuitively derive from our personal discovery of “our sense of ourselves, our identity, of what we are.” These changes entail that “we have already become something. Questions of freedom can arise for us in the transformations we undergo or project.” For Taylor, the link between personal and political discovery is so tight, so intuitive, and such a clear barometer for progress and change, that the insistence on incommensurability, let alone its use to challenge Enlightenment values, simply is perverse. And so Taylor concludes his essay by asking of the late Foucault two questions: “Can we really step outside the identity developed in Western civilization to such a degree that we can repudiate all that comes to us from the Christian understanding of the will?” and “Is the resulting ‘aesthetic of existence’ all that admirable?”


Propelled ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 113-131
Author(s):  
Andreas Elpidorou

The chapter draws upon sources from neuroscience, psychology, literature, and philosophy to make a detailed and sustained case for the indelible role that anticipation plays in our lives. By discussing topics such as predictive coding, the nature of memory, the effects of anticipatory and anticipated emotions on behavior, and existentialist views on human existence, the chapter shows the extent to which anticipation rules our lives. Our brains constantly anticipate future outcomes by generating predictions; our memories are formed with a future in mind; and our lives are greatly influenced both by the emotions that we expect to feel and the ideals that we cultivate and which inspire us to become who we want to be. By demonstrating the prevalence and significance of anticipation, the chapter makes evident that no examination of the good life can ignore it.


2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (68) ◽  
pp. 659-684
Author(s):  
Andrea Diáz Genis

Resumen: ¿Se puede llevar un buena vida a partir de una vida mala? A partir de esta pregunta que se hace Butler, tenemos el propósito de reflexionar sobre el caso de César González (ex “pibe chorro” de la villa miseria en Argentina que llega a salir de esa situación y se convierte en escritor y cineasta), a partir del enfoque de capacidades de Martha Nussbaum y la importancia que tiene en la formación humana el cuidado de sí (concepto trabajado por nosotros a partir del último Foucault),  la inquietud y el autoconocimiento. Es también una reflexión sobre la importancia de la filosofía ligada al desarrollo humano, al pensamiento crítico y la imaginación creativa y es una reflexión sobre el alcance y la relevancia que tiene la educación y la cultura en la transformación de los sujetos y su vida. Palabras-clave: Vidas precarias. Enfoque de capacidades. Cuidado de sí. César González. The contribution of philosophy and culture to the good life of a precarious body Abstract: Can you left a good life from a bad life? From this question asked by Butler, we have the purpose of reflecting on the case of César Gonzalez ( ex criminal of the misery village in Argentina that comes out of that situation and becomes a writer and filmmaker). Based on Martha Nussbaum's capabilities approach and the importance of caring for oneself in human formation (concept worked by us since the last Foucault), self-care and self-knowledge. It is also a reflection on the importance of philosophy linked to human development, critical thinking and creative imagination and is a reflection on the scope and relevance of education and culture in the transformation of subjects and their lives. Keywords: Precarious lives. Capability Approach. Self of care. César González. A contribuição da filosofia e da cultura para a boa vida de um corpo precário Resumo: Você pode levar uma vida boa no meio de uma vida ruim? A partir desta pergunta feita por Butler, temos o objetivo de refletir sobre o caso de César González (ex-criminoso da vila da miséria na Argentina que sai dessa situação e se torna escritor e cineasta), com base na abordagem As capacidades de Martha Nussbaum e a importância do autocuidado na formação humana (conceito trabalhado por nós desde o último Foucault), inquietação e autoconhecimento. É também uma reflexão sobre a importância da filosofia ligada ao desenvolvimento humano, pensamento crítico e imaginação criativa e uma reflexão sobre o escopo e a relevância da educação e cultura na transformação dos sujeitos e de suas vidas. Palavras-chave: Vidas precárias. Foco nas capacidades. Autocuidado. César González.


Good Lives ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 125-224
Author(s):  
Samuel Clark

Part II works from the point of view of the reader of autobiography, and asks: what should we learn from autobiography? It argues for a lesson about selfhood and the good life, and specifically about the roles of narrative and of self-realization in those targets of human self-knowledge. This investigation addresses four questions: given that autobiographies are narratives, should we learn something from them about the importance of narrative in human life? Could our narration of our lives explain how their parts relate to them as wholes? Could it retrospectively unify them and thereby make them good for us? Could it create self-knowledge by interpretatively making the self? In each case it answers: no. The lesson we should learn here is instead about the centrality of self-realization to selfhood and the good life. To make that case, this part argues for pluralist realism about self-knowledge: autobiographies of self-discovery, martial life, and solitude show that the ‘self’ which is created and known by self-interpretation is, at best, one part of what we can know about ourselves, and not the most interesting part. These modes of self-discovery reveal a self that is unchosen, initially opaque to itself, and seedlike, which could not be a self-interpretation, and whose good is its realization.


2007 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gianfranco Iadecola

Lo scritto intende sottolineare la difficile problematicità, dal punto di vista legale, del tema del rifiuto di cure salvavita da parte del paziente e del rilievo che una tale volontà (sempre che libera e cosciente) ha per il medico. In tale prospettiva, si dà conto di come, nella questione, interferiscano (ed entrino in contrasto) due interessi fondamentali, entrambi protetti dall’ordinamento, ossia quello della libertà morale della persona e quello della vita, osservandosi come siffatta situazione conflittuale si tragga proprio (anche) dal recente provvedimento giudiziale sulla vicenda “Welby”. Il tribunale di Roma, infatti, dopo aver ampiamente evidenziato la univoca protezione garantita dall’ordinamento giuridico alla libertà di autodeterminazione del malato, non può non registrare la indiscutibile ed assoluta tutela assicurata al bene della vita, in sostanza individuando in essa l’adempimento al riconoscimento della vincolatività, per il medico, di una volontà di cessazione delle cure idonee al mantenimento in vita, espressa dal paziente. Si osserva come, nella prima (reale) disamina specifica del problema (dei limiti di rilevanza della volontà del malato rispetto alla posizione di garanzia del medico) da parte di un giudice nazionale, venga condivisa – di contro alle opinioni dominanti nel dibattito dottrinale – la posizione secondo cui la indisponibilità del bene fondamentale della vita si ponga, anche allo stato normativo attuale, come limite al riconoscimento – del rifiuto consapevole di cure mediche salvavita – quale situazione giuridica soggettiva tutelata, sempre e comunque, dall’ordinamento. ---------- The writing intends to underline the difficult problematic nature, under the legal point of view, of life support care refusal matter by the patient and of the relief that such a will (provided that be free and conscious) has for the physician. In such perspective, it gives an account of how, in the matter, interfere (and enter contrast) two fundamental interests, both protected by the order, i.e. that of person’s moral freedom and that of life and it explains as such conflictual situation concerns really (also) about the recent judicial provision on the “Welby” case. The court of Rome, in fact, later have widely highlighted the univocal protection ensured by the legal system to the patient self-determination freedom, has to take into account the indisputable and absolute tutelage assured to the good life, basically identifying the fulfilment to the recognition of bond, for the physician, of a will of cessation of the cares suitable to the maintenance in life, expressed by the patient. One observes as, in the first (real) close examination of the problem (of the limits of importance of the will of the patient compared to the guarantee position of the doctor) by a national judge, is shared - against to the opinions ruling in the doctrinal debate, the position according to which the unavailability of the fundamental life good places, also according to the current normative state, as limit to the recognition - of the refusal aware of sustaining-life treatments - as subjective juridical situation protected, always and anyway, by the order.


Author(s):  
Samuel Clark

Reasoning with autobiography is a way to self-knowledge. We can learn about ourselves, as human beings and as individuals, by reading, thinking through, and arguing about this distinctive kind of text. Reasoning with Edmund Gosse’s Father and Son is a way of learning about the nature of the good life and the roles that pleasure and self-expression can play in it. Reasoning with Siegfried Sassoon’s Memoirs is a way of learning about transformative experience, self-alienation, and therefore the nature of the self. Good Lives develops and defends this claim, by answering a series of questions. What is an autobiography? How can we learn about ourselves from reading one? On what subjects does autobiography teach? What should we learn about them? In particular, given that autobiographies are narratives, should we learn something about the importance of narrative in human life? Could our storytelling about our own lives make sense of them as wholes, unify them over time, or make them good for us? Could storytelling make the self? The overall aim of the book is a critique of narrative and a defence of a self-realization account of the self and its good. As it pursues that, the book investigates the wide range of extant accounts of the self and of the good life, and defends pluralist realism about self-knowledge by reading and reasoning with autobiographies of self-discovery, martial life, and solitude. It concludes: autobiography can be reasoning in pursuit of self-knowledge; each of us is an unchosen, initially opaque, seedlike self; our good is the development and expression of our latent capacities, which is our individual self-realization; self-narration plays much less role in our lives than some thinkers have supposed, and the development and expression of potential much more.


1938 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 116-124
Author(s):  
N. R. Murphy

The Republic represents the good life as some sort of harmony or composition between the different interests of which the threefold nature of the soul makes it capable. The rational factor, τ λολιστικν, not only chooses which impulses shall be satisfied and which rejected but is credited also with impulses of its own, such as the desire for knowledge, to the importance of which the Republic testifies by various strands of argument. But in Plato's attempt to prove the goodness of this mixed life he may be thought to have relied too much on arguments about its pleasantness. If he had really meant from the first to prove against Thrasymachus that the just life is more prolific in pleasure1 than the unjust, he would have had to undertake the task of proving a necessary connection between just activities and pleasant states of feeling which could scarcely exist unless feelings were under the control of the will. If this had been his intention, the whole weight of the argument would rest on the two comparatively short passages in Book IX (581–3, 583–6) in which he makes first a dubious appeal to experience and then, by an equally dubious piece of metaphysics, attempts to reinforce his ethical conclusion by denying the reality of such pleasures as might tend to throw doubt on it.


2013 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 567-579
Author(s):  
Anthony Hooper

In recent years there has been a renaissance of scholarly interest in Plato's Symposium, as scholars have again begun to recognize the philosophical subtlety and complexity of the dialogue. But despite the quality and quantity of the studies that have been produced few contain an extended analysis of the speech of Aristophanes; an unusual oversight given that Aristophanes' encomium is one of the highlights of the dialogue. In contrast to the plodding and technical speeches that precede it, the father of Old Comedy structures his own speech around a fantastic fable in which he tells how humans, having originally taken the form of comically grotesque ‘circlemen’, assumed their present shape after being divided in two for their impious actions against the gods. This story forms the basis of his discussion of Eros, which he claims is nothing more than a desire to return to our original form (192e–193a). One study on which commentators continue to draw heavily for their own interpretation of Aristophanes' encomium is that of Arlene Saxonhouse. As the title of her article suggests, central to Saxonhouse's analysis is her interpretation of the Net of Hephaestus passage (192c–e), in which Aristophanes suggests that, if offered the chance to be welded together with their beloveds and so become circlemen once more, all humans would leap at the opportunity, thinking that this would be all of the fortune that they could ever desire. For Saxonhouse this passage, more than any other, demonstrates that, on Aristophanes' view, our original nature is one of perfection. According to Saxonhouse, our original form is the telos of human existence and the standard by which we judge the good life, because she understands circlemen as being self-complete beings entirely free from desire and need. Put simply, to be a circleman is to be a perfect being. Eros, on this reading, as the desire for wholeness, is to be praised because it reminds us of our deficiency, and instills in us a desire to actualize our potential for perfection. But unlike Socrates' encomium, which ends with the lover realizing their potential by possessing knowledge of the divine, Saxonhouse believes that the Net of Hephaestus passage lends a tragic end to Aristophanes' speech. For Saxonhouse it is Plato's dirty trick that he turns Aristophanes into a tragedian.


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