In Aristotle's "The Highest Good: Happiness" 1.3 The Method of Political Inquiry, its stated that, "a youth is not a suitable student to political science; for he lacks experience of the actions in life which political science argues from and about" (Hacket 25).
I refute this statement based on its biased against young people. Young people tend to make an impact on society in all aspects including politically. That passage also goes to say that, ". . . he [the youth] tends to be guided by his feelings" (Hacket 25). Even though this snide comment was intended to insult; I take is as quite the compliment. As youth we tend to act upon our emotions; however, those same emotions give us the drive to stand up for what we believe in.
There are also some points that I can relate to: "We are guided by reason in forming our desires and in acting; then this knowledge will be of great benefit" (Hacket 25). This goes further to say that we act upon what we know not the unknown. For instance, you wouldn't go to a computer engineer to ask about your car muffler. That's ridiculous.
People have knowledge of specific things, which gives them the knowledgeable advantage over those that don't. Moreover, when it comes to youth we know things that even adults aren't aware of. We know what happens in our school before our parents. We know about the latest trends and fashions before any adult can even get with the program. So, for the slight insult Aristotle directed towards youth, yes I was a little offended because there is so much more to us that meets the eye and people fail to realize that some youth more intelligent then a majority of the adults in their environments.
I agree that at first what Aristotle stated was a little off-putting. Some or even most youth today act on emotions, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. However, in Aristotle's time that might have been seen as immaturity, especially coming from a philosophy standpoint. Aristotle was a philosopher, and philosophers seek wisdom. Therefore, their judgment when making decisions were mostly guided by this wisdom, which is unlike the youth's emotional decision-making. So while I agree with your point in today's world, I am not sure that I would have agreed with your point 2000 years ago.
ReplyDeleteI'm a lot like the commenter above on this. I agree with the statement you made saying, "As youth we tend to act upon our emotions; however, those same emotions give us the drive to stand up for what we believe in," but I believe that Aristotle would say that we also need logic more than we would emotions.
ReplyDeleteBut personally, I agree 100%. I believe that a lot of adults especially coming from very small towns are quite ignorant on a lot of issues that are going on. When an adult has no idea what's going on, and fails to look at the facts of a situation, then experience means absolutely nothing.