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Advice
Some thoughts, mostly from others, about living a good life.
Copyright © 2024 by Ari Armstrong
September 21, 2024 (first posted)
Galen on Hedonism
September 21, 2024
Galen makes a great point here. R. J. Hankinson summarizes the point:
[In] ethics, [Galen] says, [in] a rather splendid passage, that you can't possibly hope to make any serious advance in matters like this [physics and philosophy] unless you're extremely hardworking, industrious, he uses the word philoponus, and you can't have that virtue if your life is devoted to pleasures of various sorts, if you are overly addicted, as he puts it, to food, drink and sex, so you need to have the philosophical virtue of ethical restraint in order to have enough time to actually do a decent job of things.
Here is the direct quote, from "The Best Doctor Is Also a Philosopher":
One cannot be hard-working if one is continually eating or drinking or indulging in sex: if, to put it briefly, one is a slave to genitals and belly. The true doctor will be found to be a friend of temperance and a companion of truth.
Of course we can talk about a sort of pleasure that comes with working toward a productive purpose, but the pleasure of hard work is not like the pleasure of a fine meal or of sex.
It is, of course, possible to regularly enjoy fine foods and great sex and still be a good doctor or philosopher or whatever. There is no inherent conflict here. We could argue more strongly that the sensible pursuit of pleasures provides the motivation and reward for working hard. There is a huge difference between going on nightly benders and enjoying a fine glass of wine with a meal, and between nightly "hook ups" and enjoying sex with one's spouse.
Galen also says, "It is impossible to pursue financial gain at the same time as training oneself in so great an art" as medicine. He says it is proper that one's "desire for financial gain is limited to what will provide for his simple bodily needs." I think this overstates the point. True, obsession with wealth will drive out authentic love of an art. But one can love an art and also strive to make a good living practicing it.
See also Standford's discussion of Galen's ethical views. P. N. Singer has an essay, "Galen's Pathological Soul: Diagnosis and Therapy in Ethical and Medical Texts and Contexts." Christopher Gill has an essay, "Galen's [De indolentia] as Philosophical Therapy: How Coherent Is It?"
Plutarch on Anger
September 21, 2024
Steve Williams has a nice short version of Plutarch's work on anger. Some excerpts:
Anger is like a bully and my mind is like a house. The anger-bully shoves out intelligence. Then it makes a mess of the house so that it is full of chaos and smoke and noise. I am not able to see anything so I can do nothing sensible. . . .
If anger becomes a habit, then my emotions become raw, bitter and easily upset. . . .
It is easier to control a flame when it is just starting as a flicker than when it has exploded into a blaze. Anyone who doesn't fuel a fire puts it out and anyone who doesn't feed anger in the early stages is eliminating anger. . . .
I am glad that I have defeated anger because it can become a habit. It can rise up out of very small things, even a joke, a laugh, a nod, or a look. . . .
Some people see anger as magnificent or manly but it is not. They mistake chaos for success, its menace for courage, its stubbornness for strength, its harshness for righteous indignation. They are wrong. It is not just that angry people assault children, treat people harshly and punish animals, they are often weak and the weakness provokes anger. . . .
Anger is not very effective either. . . . We could say [to] ourselves when we are angry: "Be quiet, calm down and you are more likely to get what you want. Take time to decide what you should do.
See also Plutarch's full work on the topic.
Should we ever get angry? I think Aristotle had it right that there are context in which it is proper to become angry. But Aristotle agreed with Plutarch that people often are overcome by their anger (I can speak from experience!): "Anyone can become angry. That is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way—that is not easy."