The Partially Examined Life is a podcast by some guys who were at one point set on doing philosophy for a living but then thought better of it. Each episode, we pick a short text and chat about it with some balance between insight and flippancy. You don't have to know any philosophy, or even to have read the text we're talking about to (mostly) follow and (hopefully) enjoy the discussion. For links to the texts we discuss and other info, check out www.partiallyexaminedlife.com. We also feature episodes from other podcasts by our hosts to round out your partially examined life, including Pretty Much Pop (prettymuchpop.com, covering all media), Nakedly Examined Music (nakedlyexaminedmusic.com, deconstructing songs), Philosophy vs. Improv (philosophyimprov.com, fun with performance skills and philosophical ideas), and (sub)Text (subtextpodcast.com, looking deeply at lit and film). Learn about more network podcasts at partiallyexaminedlife.com.
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Episode 147: Aristotle on Wisdom and Incontinence (Part Two)
Continuing on the Nichomachean Ethics (ca. 350 BCE), books 6–7.
We're still talking about the various intellectual virtues for the first half here, including the ever-popular nous, translated sometimes as "rational intuition" (which you might call we discussed from a very different perspective in our episodes on Aristotle's De Anima.
We finally then get to akrasia, i.e., weakness of the will or incontinence. I know I shouldn't eat the cake (or murder all those people), but darn it, I just can't help myself! Aristotle contrasts such a weak person (who at least seems to have correct moral beliefs, though he apparently is still confused in some way or he would do what he thinks he should) with a simply intemperate/self-indulgent/vicious person who actually has wrong beliefs about what's right to do. That kind of person can't just be habituated out of his bad habit, but has to be convinced. Aristotle is not optimistic about such convincing, given the person's obvious lack of the morally relevant intellectual faculties he's just told us about.
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