If you ever feel down and/or not feel connected or engaged in the world, here's what Aristotle thought about you and me:
"Each person functions, according to Aristotle, in a different capacity from another. All occupy different levels of the social strata, each performing tasks that best suit them. As a result, the city (Polis) benefits. For instance, the city thrives when soldiers are the best soldiers possible, farmers are the best farmers possible, rulers are the best rulers possible, judges are the best judges possible, craftsmen are the best craftsmen possible, and so on.
By being the best in whatever life, career, or place in society that you occupy, everyone else also benefits. For example, if craftsmen were bad at their craft and sold products that people need, this would lead to a less functional, less happy, and less well-ordered city. When everyone fulfills their social purpose to the best of their ability, everyone benefits.
This is Aristotle's notion of excellence. Excellence is not only pertinent to the individual but also essential to politics. Good politics fosters virtue or excellence because virtue helps achieve the good life and brings happiness. By being virtuous and excellent in life, happiness is the result. On the other hand, if one is unvirtuous or not excellent at their craft or whatever they do in life, it results in misery for both the individual and others.
Since the polis (city-state) serves to achieve the purpose of happiness as a natural expression of human nature, Aristotle argues for political and social excellence within his works Politics and Nicomachean Ethics. Good politics will necessarily and naturally lead to its citizens cultivating virtue and excellence in themselves and in relation to others.
The state does not cultivate virtue for us; Aristotle argues that we cultivate virtue for ourselves. It is impossible for the state to produce the excellence and virtue that is innate within humans. While good laws can help further that advancement, the cultivation of excellence and virtue is ultimately an individual endeavor. This is better aided by relationships with other people than by the law and the state.
Thus, Aristotle concludes that a city is excellent because its citizens, who participate in the political system, are excellent. By being excellent individuals, we become excellent citizens, which results in an excellent and virtuous politics and polis."
**You are absolutely fundamental in this Polis.**
The only thing is it's hard to see that this is a Polis. But it is (and it will become ever more apparent with time). We're a building a Polis made up of many other Polis. In the end we'll all understand that was the case, I think.
And thus in this sense your work is incredibly value. Your excellence is incredibly valuable.
Keep it up!
#politics #philosophy #bitcoin #virtue #excellence #nostr #plebs
