Alana reads Aristotle

Good morning, Lana. How are you?

I'm good. How are you?

I'm well. Any tournaments or travel or fun things going on this weekend?

We have a tournament on the 15th or 16th of October, but not this weekend. There was one Yesterday and today, but we didn't do it.

Why did you not?

Well, we figured that we just wanted a break because EDCC was just a week ago or a few weeks ago.

Got it. Breaks are good. That makes sense. That makes sense. Um, have you ever heard of Aristotle?

No, I haven't.

Okay. Aristotle is a Greek philosopher, and I just, uh, dropped a famous passage from Aristotle into the chat. Um, you want to read it?

Okay, all of it? Do you want me to read all of it?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, all of it. It's not that long.

Yeah. All men by nature desire to know. An indication of this is the delight we take in our senses, for even apart from their usefulness, they are loved for themselves. And above all others, the sense of sight, for not only to view with— not only with the view to action, but even when we are not going to do anything, we prefer seeing, one might say, to everyone else, to everything else. The reason is that this, most of all the senses, makes us know and brings to light and many differences between things.

So any thoughts on an initial reading? Is it easy to understand, hard to understand? How is it?

Well, Aristotle is talking about senses, but I— it's kind of confusing. I don't know exactly what he's talking about.

No problem. Again, my technique is always to go slowly and break it up into pieces. Um, does it make sense that usually something that might be confusing using when you break it up starts to make more sense?

Yes.

So, um, yeah, I use it all the time. So let's just start with the first one. All men by nature desire to know. Does that make sense?

Yes, it does. But I— but know what? What do people desire to know? What?

That's a really good question. A really good question. Would you— do you think that, um, you know, back, back in the day, you know, he said all men, but of course he means all people. Do you think all people, um, desire to know in something, somehow?

Yes.

What kinds of things do people want to know?

Um, well, maybe one person And this is just being random, but maybe one person would want to know the answers to their math quiz. That's something. And maybe another one would want to know how to code or how to write a book or something.

Okay, um, so people are interested in knowing different things. Could you imagine somebody who really has no interest in knowing anything?

Not really, I can't.

Okay, so it sounds like it makes sense then to say all men by nature desire to know. Um, by nature— what, what work is the clause by nature doing there? What do you think he means by, by nature we desire to know?

It's maybe, maybe he means like we already Maybe. I don't exactly think— I don't know if nature and instinct are the same thing, but maybe he means like it's an instinct to desire to know.

Okay. I mean, instincts are certainly natural, so it would make sense to kind of think that. Um, do you think that, uh, people instinctively have a desire to know?

I think so. Yes.

Do they have a desire to know how to code or what the answer to their math problem is? What kinds of things do they instinctively want to know?

Maybe they instinctively want to know how to maybe— and I'm just going to go back to the math exam. They could instinctively want to know that, because maybe every time that person gets a math exam, they're just used to thinking, oh, I wish I knew the answers, I want to know them now.

Okay, um, let's get to the next sentence. An indication of this is the delight we take in our senses. Does it make sense to say that we take delight in our senses?

It makes some sense because I do like my senses, but I don't understand how we would take delight.

Okay, let's keep going and see if it makes sense later on. For even apart from their usefulness, they are loved for themselves, and above all others, the sense of sight. So sight is certainly useful. Do you think that we also love our sense of sight in addition to its usefulness?

Well, I guess so, but I would think that not a lot of people would think, oh, I love my sight.

Yeah, it's, it's not a way we think. I think it's my sense, and I think I'm agreeing with you, is that It's hard to say no to this. I mean, everybody wants their sight, but it's not a way that we usually think. And so then it's, you know, it does bring up a question, I think, for both you and I. Why is he going there? Not that he's wrong, but you know what I mean? Why is he putting it that way? For not only with a view to action, but even when we are not going to do anything, we might, we prefer seeing when we— one might say to everything else. So not only with a view to action, but even when we are not going to do anything, we prefer seeing to everything else. What do you think he means by that?

Um, well, he says even if we're not doing anything Well, people like— maybe there's something going on, but people don't want to get themselves involved, but everyone likes to watch it, right?

Yeah, it's sort of a horrible example, but I think of, you know, sometimes when there's a car crash on the side of the road, everybody wants to look, you know. You know, you're just driving by, you're not going to do anything, but I would say it's almost hard not to look. You know what I mean? Yeah. And so it does make sense that we prefer seeing. How about the reason is that this, most of all senses, makes us know and brings to light many differences between things. What does that mean?

I'm not sure.

So let's just test it out with vision. Sometimes I like to just test parts of a phrase to see if it makes sense and if I agree, basically. If he's talking nonsense, then of course it's not going to make sense. But vision, so most of all, The reason is that this, that is vision, most of all the senses, makes us know and brings to light many differences between things. Would you say vision makes us know and brings to light many differences between things? Are you muted? You're muted.

Oops, sorry. I would say so. Now that I think about it, because our sight makes us see differences and light.

Do you think of sight as related to the desire to know?

Um, would you?

It's a good question. I guess the reason I asked you was that you were using as examples to know, learning to code or learning a math problem, but you know, when I think of— when I think of does— when I ask myself the question, do I think sight relates to wanting to know or the desire to know, I think what if you couldn't see? What if you were blind? and I think it would be incredibly frustrating. Suppose maybe it's just temporary. Suppose that you or I had to go without our sight for a week. I think it would just be so frustrating. You'd hear people talking, you'd hear noises, you'd trip on things. I think that without sight for a week, when you got it back, you would be so grateful. Would you agree?

Yes, I would be.

So that's, in that sense, you know, the desire to know. It's different from the desire to know like math problems or how to code, but the desire to know just what's going on around us. Wow. I think we very much want to know what's going on around us, and sight is kind of essential to that, right?

Yes.

I'm thinking of other senses. So suppose you went without hearing for a week. I think that would be frustrating and you'd kind of, you'd be using your sight to try to figure out what's going on if you couldn't hear. And it'd be great to get your hearing back, but I think going without hearing wouldn't be quite as frustrating as going without sight. Would you agree?

Yeah, yes, because you can still, well, if you're blind, I guess you can still communicate, but you don't know who you're talking to very much 'cause you can't see them. And sight really helps you identify things.

Yeah, I mean, I think blind people learn how to hear and they learn how to understand the world with their hearing, but still.

Right, it's like temporary, like you said.

Yeah, and you know, blind people, even if they can hear things, They don't know what people look like, they don't know what clothes they're wearing, they don't know what expressions are on their face. I think they learn by tone of voice to get a lot, but I'm just thinking through other senses. So taste, being without taste for a week would be a bummer, but not a really big deal, right?

Yeah, because, well, at least you're still eating.

Yeah, and kind of smell as well. It'd be a bummer to go a week without a sense of smell, but not really a big deal. So just in terms of those senses, sight and hearing seem much more important than tasting and smelling. Would you agree?

Yes, they do.

Touching— where would you put touching? How would you evaluate touch?

Um, maybe if you got really sick and you couldn't move. 'Cause I know, I think that does happen. That could be something if you can't lift your arms up and you can't walk.

There are people who are paralyzed sometimes from accidents, and sometimes it is temporary and they regain use of their body. But I imagine that's frustrating, but as frustrating as it is, and also if you could move and couldn't feel things, then you could injure yourself. You know, you could like walk into a table not even know. And that would— and, and there are people with things like that, they hurt themselves all the time because, you know, they can't feel if they're bumping into things. Um, but, you know, in terms of our senses and which gives us the most knowledge, what I'm coming to is vision number one and hearing number two. Would you agree?

Yeah, I would agree.

So, so let's go back to I'll read the whole thing this time and let's see, um, what we think now. All men by nature desire to know. An indication of this is the delight we take in our senses, for even apart from their usefulness, they are loved for themselves. And above all others, the sense of sight, for not only with a view to action, but even when we are not going to do anything, we prefer seeing, one might say, to everything else. The reason is that this, most of all the senses, makes us know and brings to light many differences between things. Does it make sense?

It makes more sense than the first time we read it.

Yeah, and when he says at the end makes many, brings to light many differences between things, I'm thinking with vision you could tell, you know, who the different people in the room are, You can tell where the furniture is. You can tell outside if there are plants or trees or what's going on. And without sight, I think for me, the best way to understand why he might say that we delight in our senses is to see what it would be like to take them away. And I think we take our senses for granted. So it's not like we wake up every morning. I don't think most of us wake up every morning and say, I can see. You know, how delightful. But if we went a week without it, wow, I bet I would wake up and I would be so grateful. Agreed.

Yes. Um, everyone would.

Does it seem strange to describe your senses as, uh, evidence that we have a desire to know?

Well, now It kind of makes sense because with your senses you can know, you can see and hear and learn things like that.

And I think it's kind of knowing super basic things. So you were, you were thinking desire to know meant, yeah, math problems and things like that. But I think Aristotle here may be talking about the desire to know just what's going on around us. And I think that we so take that for granted. We don't think of Yeah, just we want to know what's going on around us. I'm thinking even like babies in a crib, I can imagine, you know, they'd want to look around and they want to, they would crawl up on the crib so they can look out and, you know.

Yeah.

So, and anytime somebody can't see something, I'm thinking animals, animals want to see too. Like if there was an animal in a box or cage, you know, like an animal, a dog in a cardboard box or a cat, they'd want to look up over the edge of the box and see what's going around. You know, I think we're curious, we want to know what's going around, and vision is number one. I mean, it's interesting because dogs have a great sense of smell, so maybe for dogs, smell might even be, you know, for dogs, smell might be the big one.

You lost your smell and you're a dog, what would you do?

Exactly, exactly, exactly. But yeah, for humans at least, it's vision. Cool. Well, I'm glad that we managed to make sense of that. Any other thoughts before we call it a day?

No.

All right. Have a great weekend, and we'll see you next week. Bye-bye, Lana.

Bye.