Bücher online kostenlos Kostenlos Online Lesen
The Complete Aristotle (eng.)

The Complete Aristotle (eng.)

Titel: The Complete Aristotle (eng.) Kostenlos Bücher Online Lesen
Autoren: Aristotle
Vom Netzwerk:
regard to the excellences of the soul, which in
a young man are temperance and courage. Applied to an individual,
they mean that his own children are numerous and have the good
qualities we have described. Both male and female are here
included; the excellences of the latter are, in body, beauty and
stature; in soul, self-command and an industry that is not sordid.
Communities as well as individuals should lack none of these
perfections, in their women as well as in their men. Where, as
among the Lacedaemonians, the state of women is bad, almost half of
human life is spoilt.
    The constituents of wealth are: plenty of coined money and
territory; the ownership of numerous, large, and beautiful estates;
also the ownership of numerous and beautiful implements, live
stock, and slaves. All these kinds of property are our own, are
secure, gentlemanly, and useful. The useful kinds are those that
are productive, the gentlemanly kinds are those that provide
enjoyment. By ‘productive’ I mean those from which we get our
income; by ‘enjoyable’, those from which we get nothing worth
mentioning except the use of them. The criterion of ‘security’ is
the ownership of property in such places and under such Conditions
that the use of it is in our power; and it is ‘our own’ if it is in
our own power to dispose of it or keep it. By ‘disposing of it’ I
mean giving it away or selling it. Wealth as a whole consists in
using things rather than in owning them; it is really the
activity-that is, the use-of property that constitutes wealth.
    Fame means being respected by everybody, or having some quality
that is desired by all men, or by most, or by the good, or by the
wise.
    Honour is the token of a man’s being famous for doing good. it
is chiefly and most properly paid to those who have already done
good; but also to the man who can do good in future. Doing good
refers either to the preservation of life and the means of life, or
to wealth, or to some other of the good things which it is hard to
get either always or at that particular place or time-for many gain
honour for things which seem small, but the place and the occasion
account for it. The constituents of honour are: sacrifices;
commemoration, in verse or prose; privileges; grants of land; front
seats at civic celebrations; state burial; statues; public
maintenance; among foreigners, obeisances and giving place; and
such presents as are among various bodies of men regarded as marks
of honour. For a present is not only the bestowal of a piece of
property, but also a token of honour; which explains why
honour-loving as well as money-loving persons desire it. The
present brings to both what they want; it is a piece of property,
which is what the lovers of money desire; and it brings honour,
which is what the lovers of honour desire.
    The excellence of the body is health; that is, a condition which
allows us, while keeping free from disease, to have the use of our
bodies; for many people are ‘healthy’ as we are told Herodicus was;
and these no one can congratulate on their ‘health’, for they have
to abstain from everything or nearly everything that men do.-Beauty
varies with the time of life. In a young man beauty is the
possession of a body fit to endure the exertion of running and of
contests of strength; which means that he is pleasant to look at;
and therefore all-round athletes are the most beautiful, being
naturally adapted both for contests of strength and for speed also.
For a man in his prime, beauty is fitness for the exertion of
warfare, together with a pleasant but at the same time formidable
appearance. For an old man, it is to be strong enough for such
exertion as is necessary, and to be free from all those deformities
of old age which cause pain to others. Strength is the power of
moving some one else at will; to do this, you must either pull,
push, lift, pin, or grip him; thus you must be strong in all of
those ways or at least in some. Excellence in size is to surpass
ordinary people in height, thickness, and breadth by just as much
as will not make one’s movements slower in consequence. Athletic
excellence of the body consists in size, strength, and swiftness;
swiftness implying strength. He who can fling forward his legs in a
certain way, and move them fast and far, is good at running; he who
can grip and hold down is good at wrestling; he who can drive an
adversary from his ground with the right blow is a good boxer: he
who can do both

Weitere Kostenlose Bücher