Two views of Adulthood
- It's the prime of life (Aristotle, Michael Slote)
- It's a problematic time of life (Graham, Setiya)
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Aristotle background
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| Aristotle (384 - 322 BC) |
Aristotle's account of wellbeing (Nicomachean Ethics)
- eudaimonia: translated happiness, wellbeing, flourishing, doing well, blessedness
- eudaimonia is the good LIFE as a whole..you don't have it as a child or for a summer
- core of eudaimonia: achieving specifically human forms of excellence/virtue (arete)
- moral virtues
- intellectual virtues
- for eudaimonia you also need a modicum of "external goods" such as wealth, beauty, good birth, friends, etc.
Reading is from The Rhetoric (350 BC) -- Aristotle is talking about age groups to advise people about how to give speeches to different audiences
- Youth (young adults...but not children)
- Old people
- People in the prime of life (35 is ideal for body, 49 for mind) -
Are Aristotle's generalizations about age groups at all perceptive?
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If there's some truth in his generalizations, why are people so different at different ages?
Aristotle says...
- underlying biology of aging -- vital heat starts off too hot, cools to "just right" and then to too cool
- psychology of age
- old people foresee death, have health issues, have long memories
- at midlife people have more opportunities for virtue
- young people see all of life ahead of them
