{"id":4496,"date":"2021-11-19T22:15:16","date_gmt":"2021-11-20T03:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soapboxredemption\/?p=4496"},"modified":"2021-11-21T20:14:20","modified_gmt":"2021-11-22T01:14:20","slug":"aristotle-on-excellence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soapboxredemption\/2021\/11\/aristotle-on-excellence\/","title":{"rendered":"Aristotle (and the misattribution to him) on Excellence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

That famous Aristotle quote\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are repeatedly what we do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, that\u2019s not actually Aristotle, it was Will Durant.\u00a0Aristotle did say (bold my emphasis):<\/p>\n

\u201cVirtue, then, being of two kinds, intellectual and moral<\/strong>, intellectual virtue in the main owes both its birth and its growth to teaching\u2026 Moral virtue comes about as a result of<\/strong> habit<\/strong>\u2026\u00a0 None of the moral virtues arises in us by nature\u2026 We are adapted by nature to receive them, and are made perfect by habit<\/strong>. (Nicomachean Ethics, Book II<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Clearly, the underlying vibe is consistent between the actual quote and misattribution. We should keep in mind that Durant was just trying to represent what Aristotle was getting at; the misattribution simply confuses Durant\u2019s paraphrase of Aristotle\u2019s point\u00a0for Aristotle\u2019s own words. Caelan Huntress did a nice piece on this<\/a> as did Frank Herron<\/a> and Brad Sylvester<\/a>. Even Wikiquote has the record straight<\/a>. Looking into the source of confusion, it\u2019s easy to\u00a0see why the Will Durant misquote still haunts us today,\u00a0 even in philosophy texts and websites.<\/p>\n

When you look at various interpretations of Nicomachean Ethics, the terms \u201cvirtue\u201d and \u201cexcellence\u201d are equated.\u00a0The timeless truth Aristotle is getting it is that\u00a0excellence (or virtue) is not about knowing<\/em>, it\u2019s about doing<\/em>, and doing repeatedly<\/em>.<\/p>\n

As I love the point behind the actual Aristotle (and the misattributed quote), I felt it virtuous to help continue to set the record straight.<\/p>\n

Image: Jastrow (2006)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That famous Aristotle quote\u2026 \u201cWe are repeatedly what we do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit\u201d Well, that\u2019s not actually Aristotle, it was Will Durant.\u00a0Aristotle did say (bold my emphasis): \u201cVirtue, then, being of two kinds, intellectual and moral, intellectual virtue in the main owes both its birth and its growth to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1687,"featured_media":4501,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-quote-bank"],"yoast_head":"\nAristotle (and the misattribution to him) on Excellence<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"That famous Aristotle quote... "We are repeatedly what we do. 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