"The head rules the belly with the aid of the chest!"-Dr. Mitchell
This Dr. Mitchell quote summed up the section about the relation of reason, spiritedness, and passions. Reason, with the help of spirit, is to rule our passion, which is supposedly the lowest of our emotions.
The change in the connotations of the word passion was an interesting thing. Today, passion is not always a bad thing, depending upon the context in which it is being referred to. Then however, passion was bad. Passion was a form of suffering, and represented things that were changeable. "You don't want a passionate Roman," as Dr. Mitchell said in class. Instead, you want a stoic Roman.
But is this really the best way? If everything is based on reason, obviously things are going to run more smoothly, but if there is no passion behind peoples actions and decisions, are they really going to put much effort into accomplishing their goals? after all, what do you work harder for, the boring but reasonable assignment, or the difficult assignment that challenges you and your beliefs and makes you work for an answer?
At the same time though, I can see the point of the Romans. You don't want to be completely ruled by passion or else nothing will be accomplished, for without reason you only have your whims to lead you, and they are but fleating, as so pointed out by our dear Roman friends. So a balance between the two seems to be the way to go, perhaps this is the job of the spiritedness, or will within the mix? to add that bit of passion in order to accomplish things without going overboard?
Over all, I thought that the way that words have changed was a very interesting thing to observe, and enjoyed our bonus tangent into the world of Aristotle Tuesday. But I now look forward to a journey away from Plato and Aristotle and into Virgil and the Aeneid.
P.S.--I commented on Lucas's Blog
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