27 September 2007

SS. Cosmas and Damian, Martyrs

SS. Cosmas and Damian, two brothers, physicians, born at Egæa (Arabia), were beheaded after many cruel tortures in Cilicia, under Diocletian, by order of the prefect Lysias in 283.

Tonight at the Kartause the ITI hosted a lecture by Dr. Markus Riedenauer entitled "Orexis: The Natural Basis of Aristotelian Ethics. All students are required to attend such lectures and so I had the opportunity to expand my knowledge of Aristotelian philosophy (such as it is). The main subject of the lecture was the proper place of the passions (emotions) in human virtue. The passions must be disciplined and integrated into right reason. Clearly it is our responsibility to train our passions to react spontaneously in accordance with reason. To quote Aristotle:

"Virtue has the quality of hitting the mean ... to feel these feelings at the right time, on the right occasion, towards the right people, for the right purpose and in the right manner, it is to feel the best amount of them, which is the mean amount" (Nichomachean Ethics VI, 2).

And in conclusion, here is another cute picture of Maria!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

She sure loves that windowsill! Maria,you look so big and so-o-o-o cute!
The Aristotle blurb makes good sense, no?
1-2-3

Anna said...

Very cute. But why is she always in pigtails all of a sudden? Do you think you can just take my niece to austria and start putting her in pigtails? I bet it was John's idea.

vince said...

would you bring her back please?

Anonymous said...

I put her hair in pigtails because I don't want to cut her bangs, and it is a good way to keep her hair out of her eyes. And I think it's cute. And she likes to have bows in her hair. If there are not bows in her hair and she finds one, she tries to put it there by herself. She also tries to put her bows on her stuffed animals.

Jennifer said...

And so it begins. It always comes back to bangs. She's adorable!!!

Mark K. Spencer said...

I am glad to see that you are learning the wisdom of The Philosopher.

Anonymous said...

Really?! What did Aristotle have to say about bangs?

Jennifer said...

You can read between the lines. ...passion, emotion, the bangs must be disciplined, the bangs must be trained to react spontaneously...

Anonymous said...

All true about the bangs...which is why I'm simply growing them out now...hence the pigtails. It really does all come down to bangs;)

Anonymous said...

i love the shoes :) (and the pigtails...)