Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics bk. 2 | Virtue as the Mean | Philosophy Core Concepts

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This is a video in my new Core Concepts series -- designed to provide students and lifelong learners a brief discussion focused on one main concept from a classic philosophical text and thinker.
This Core Concept video focuses on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, book 2, in particular on the notion of moral virtues as mean or middle states between vices of excess and of deficiency.
If you'd like to support my work producing videos like this, become a Patreon supporter! Here's the link to find out more - including the rewards I offer backers: / sadler
You can also make a direct contribution to help fund my ongoing educational projects, by clicking here: www.paypal.me/ReasonIO
If you're interested in philosophy tutorial sessions with me - especially on Aristotle! - click here: reasonio.wordpress.com/tutori...
We also offer affordable, content-packed, on-demand courses on Philosophy in the ReasonIO Academy - reasonio.teachable.com/
This video is one component in a set of online courses covering Aristotle's entire Nicomachean Ethics. These include 94 lecture videos, 45 downloadable handouts and worksheets, 10 quizzes, 39 lesson pages, and other resources. Check it out in the ReasonIO Academy here - reasonio.teachable.com/p/arist...

[@1stApologist]

Thank you so much for taking your time to post videos like this to help people like me that take in information better by listening than reading.

[@olimpostatoglu2187]

11 years later im here studying for my ethics midterm with you thank you so much you are such a great instructor

[@GregoryBSadler]

Glad it's helpful for you!

[@GregoryBSadler]

Yep -- it's arguably one of Aristotle most important contributions to Philosophy (though that's a tough case to make, since he made so many)

[@everyoneaccessorizellc.898]

I have been watching your videos to have a better understanding of Philosophers and all I can say is thank you for sharing, this is a very good video especially with the class setting and the students giving their feedback.

[@GregoryBSadler]

Glad you enjoy the videos

[@kristinrodier2217]

Monday is virtue ethics day. I try to do a whole week on virtue, friendship, and love by teaching Aristotle's virtue ethics, Aristotle on friendship, a little Epicurus and Marcus Aurelius on friendship and then Plato's Symposium (a favourite of mine I try to work in to as many classes as I can). I don't know of many other intro teachers at my university that teach any ancient in their classes, which is too bad. When I was just starting philosophy, it was what I appreciated most.

[@michaeldean6926]

Thanks! It's very helpful for me to see how other instructors teach material. I liked your emphasis on how Aristotle's concept of virtue differed from his predecessors...and yet, his approach does a good job of representing the general Greek maxim "nothing too much." When I teach Aristotelian virtue as a mean between extremes, I try to help students avoid making the mistake of thinking of the mean as an "average," as in mathematics. While the mean is in the "middle" in a special sense, it is also the pinnacle, as in the top point of an equilateral triangle. I often draw the extremes of excess and deficiency as the bottom points of a triangle and the mean as the top point to illustrate this.

[@FreedomandRights4US]

9 years later, still loving it. Thank you.

[@GregoryBSadler]

Glad to read it

[@lorenzodemedici1]

You are awesome sir, thank you for putting up these lectures.

[@GregoryBSadler]

Yes, there's good reasons why these texts are considered "classics" -- they contain much to think through, providing one puts in the work required, both to study them, and then to teach them. I suspect the latter is why some philosophy profs don't do much Ancient.

[@GregoryBSadler]

Nice to read -- you're very welcome

[@GregoryBSadler]

quite true

[@kristinrodier2217]

I certainly took much more from it than various trolley problems.

[@jarvytubera358]

thanks,this helps me a lot!...

[@GregoryBSadler]

You're welcome!

[@GregoryBSadler]

new Core Concept video

[@krystekmatysek2042]

Thankkk Youu! You sir definitely deserve those snacks at night :D

[@GregoryBSadler]

I do, but my poor body doesn't

[@iCharliie]

If a young person is very good at school, is popular and spends his weekends with people in an alcohol related environment like clubs and partys and he consumes it regularly. Could he be considered a virtuos person or a self-controlled person? What could depend on it?

[@therealkbrackson]

thank you for literally pulling out the big chalkboard for us on this. appreciate it!

[@GregoryBSadler]

This one was recorded in front of one of my classes, rather than in my home studio

[@therealkbrackson]

Gregory B. Sadler I liked it. every time you asked the audience, I was like I know! I miss school. I graduated at 16, went into web design and development when I was 17 and economically it paid off because I have a 10 year head start in the field on my counterparts, but I missed out on stuff like this.

[@GregoryBSadler]

You'll probably want to check out some of the course videos then. I've got playlists for Intro to Philosophy, Ethics, and Religion in America, all recorded in my classes from a few years back

[@GregoryBSadler]

Well, being good at school and being popular are really not that relevant to this. If a person spends their time on weekends in clubs and parties, they can certainly be a self-controlled person. They could just as well be akratic, however. What makes a person self-control is following reason's dictates against the desires one has but knows are bad to over-indulge. There's nothing about this scenario that would make one think of virtue -- and the relevant virtue would be temperance.

[@kawaiivee5257]

Thankyou sir

[@GregoryBSadler]

You’re welcome

[@edwardbatista7920]

thanks a lot

[@GregoryBSadler]

+edward batista You're welcome!

[@GregoryBSadler]

+edward batista You're welcome!

[@landth78]

Thank you sir For another sexy class :)

[@chayoto]

Do you have anyone who could add subtitles for the hearing-impaired?

[@GregoryBSadler]

All you have to do is click the CC button on the bottom of the video. It's been that way on KZbin for a while

[@chayoto]

Well, the kind of subs I get when I click on the button is the self-generated kind, which tends to be inferior to the one that is human-made.

[@GregoryBSadler]

Well, when you find some people to volunteer to do the time-consuming work of competently transcribing philosophy videos for free, send them my way. Until then, I guess you're stuck with the inferior ones

[@chayoto]

How about myself, then?

[@GregoryBSadler]

If you want to do transcriptions, that sounds good. Why don't you email me at [e-mail] and I'll send you links for the videos you'd like to transcribe

[@beautystarchic]

nice coat

[@LadyAbstracted]

...It’s 1am and I literally just stopped myself from mindlessly eating white cheddar popcorn. 🙃

[@GregoryBSadler]

Good job