Peripatetic Xander

FDR understood this very well. He understood that if his reforms didn’t work, Americans would abandon liberal democracy for fascism. In the post-Cold War era, many have smugly taken it for granted that liberal democracy is the way of the future. This self-satisfied view will be liberalism’s undoing.

Most people aren’t philosophically wedded to any particular form of government, whether liberal democracy or communism.

People judge governments by their results. They want a government that can solve society’s problems. If liberal democracy can’t do that, they will gravitate toward something else.

One of the greatest impediments to understanding classical texts stems from the fact that they have all too often been translated into English by dusty old British men, who have not one but several sticks up their bums, as well as in their eyes, ears, and throat.

We need to un-British antiquity.

Eutrapelia (εὐτραπελία) is the capacity to bond with other people and foster human connection through play.

ἡ ἔμμελης ὁμιλία = attuned togetherness

ἡ ἔμμελης ὁμιλία = attuned companionship

Eutrapelia is the right use of play for the sake of relational attunement.

Eutrapelia is the virtue of achieving relational attunement through play.

And insofar as achieving relational attunement through play is part of the task (ergon) of being human, eutrapelia is clearly a quality that makes a person good at being human, and qualifies as a virtue in the strong sense.

Recent comments made by Steve Bannon reveal in the clearest possible terms what I think should have been obvious all along:

There exists a tension between democracy and the rule of law.

What if a majority of the electorate votes for something illegal, if the will of the people is unconstitutional?

Reared in the modern moral outlook, we are always haunted by the suspicion that fun and play have nothing whatsoever to do with virtue, but if we take Aristotle seriously, then this suspicion is unfounded.

The exceptional degree of playfulness exhibited by and between human adults is plausibly explained by the species’ extreme neoteny.

Of all of Aristotle’s virtues, perhaps none is more counterintuitive to our modern sensibilities than eutrapelia, and this is precisely why I have chosen to study it.

In comparison to what China will become, the Soviet Union will be nothing but a footnote in history.

My poster was a hit.

People need to feel free to act freely.

This is why people will always prioritize order over freedom.

Even if you’re free on paper, without order, you don’t feel free to exercise that freedom.

Order isn’t the enemy of freedom.

Chaos is.

The arbitrary rule of a tyrant is not order.

It’s chaos.

Because “moral development” refers to the process of becoming good at being human, the virtues are the fulfillment of certain uniquely human capacities for reason and shared life.

Because they are neotenous, human adults retain a robust capacity for childishness, of which playfulness is the virtue.

Because “moral development” refers to the process of becoming good at being human, the virtues are the fulfillment of certain uniquely human capacities for reason and shared life.

If human beings are neotenous, adults retain some capacity for childishness, of which playfulness would be the virtue.

Whatever function play behavior serves in childhood (e.g., preparation for adult life), if by neotenic processes playfulness is retained into adulthood, then it seems plausible that although play may serve additional purposes beyond adolescence, it nonetheless has become constitutive of being human.

Fancy version has dropped!

universityrochester.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

In which I discuss the role of friendship between men in moral development and the formation of good character.
academic.oup.com/jope/advance...

This assuredly rings true to people who have never set foot in a city or outside the United States.

In the pre-Christian West, “ethics” essentially meant the art of being a person.

It entailed a thick conception of what a human being is, and consequently entailed facts about what is good and bad for human beings (facts about human flourishing).

“Morality” has its origins outside this tradition.

If the opportunity ever comes to rebuild the Department of Education, it will be necessary to reimagine its mission and its scope to include a robust commitment to character education in schools.

As the Founders well understood, a Republic’s survival rests on the moral qualities of its citizens.

Freedom is a state of character marked by the absence of undue attachment to things that don’t really matter, as determined by practical wisdom.

One of the worst inferences in human history is thinking that because Donald Trump lived his life as a libertine that he would, therefore, govern as a libertarian.

It’s 2025.

Can we please stop pretending Europe and Asia are separate continents?

GOP’s Murkowski says she feels ‘cheated’ by administration following megabill’s passage The Alaska senator thought she’d negotiated an agreement to protect solar and wind projects. Then she learned otherwise.

If you wittingly cooperate with known, serial cheaters, you weren’t “cheated,” you’re just a sucker… And an idiot.

www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

Habituation (ἐθισμος) is the long-term potentiation of frontolimbic pathways thru repeated, deliberate practice.

Robust connections formed as a result of this process are known as holding-states (ἕξεις), which are maintained thru repeated activation.

Practice → development

Exercise → maintenance

Habituation (ἐθισμος) is the long-term potentiation of frontolimbic pathways through repeated, deliberate practice.

evaluate judgments are extended to the objects themselves, tagging them with either a good or a bad label, amounting to “this is good” and “this is bad.” This report is then sent to the CNS for further evaluation.

The CNS may then judge these reports as being either veridical or non-veridical. 2x