Scintillating discussions of art and philosophy, by Rebecca Blocksome's Western Thought I class at the Kansas City Art Institute.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
How Should We Live?
I wish everyone would just live for themselves. Doesn't that sound selfish? Maybe but I keep getting caught up in Aristotle's Vices and Virtues theory. Selfless and selfish. The excess of a virtue is a vice. Sort of like to much of a good thing is bad. Everywhere I go I see people who live there lives for everyone but themselves. I guess this sort of goes back to the discussion we had in class but I feel like to some extent you have to make yourself happy before you can make someone else happy. To many times good, selfless people lose themselves because they stop doing what is right for themselves and they live only to maintain the happiness of others. Like a host for a parasite... but hey, I guess this is what I'm about to tell you all about tomorrow so I suppose I should stop there!
i have to agree with erin in that there really is no such thing as a person who is completely selfless. it's truely impossible, for there are even the most basic of bodily demands that we must give in to; ( i mean, we can't just not eat. that's dumb.) but it's not just that i don't believe that it's impossible to be selfless. i think it's extremely important to be able to take care of and understand yourself before even thinking about caring for another. if you are not mentally stable and have bad eating habits, how can you even begin to expect yourself to be able to take care of another in their time of need? a child especially is going to need you to be totally grounded and in tune with yourself.
ReplyDeletehowever, it's not good at all to be completely selfish either. i definitely believe in yin-yang and its powerful symbolism for total balance. balance is really the key to living. pure good and pure bad are both going to screw you over and warp your ability to really experience a fulfilled life. i mean, it's logical that to really understand any given situation, you need both sides of the story.
so i don't think you should only fill yourself with positive things. but i don't you should only fill yourself with negative things either. we should really live in balance.