Does Aristotle think I'm a good dad?

You just have to be very good at what you are good and you'll get his nod of approval

Some dad attributes and activities I excell at. I can carry him up hills, we're good at getting muddy, I'm always up for a kick about and a giggly wrestle. He will get taken to a lot of sport.

But can I dress him in an outfit that matches? Am I able to feign interest in the minutiae of nursery policy? Do I get bored of reading to him after the sixth book? You get the picture.

As long as I'm really good at the things I'm good at then I won't beat myself up and I'd like to think Aristotle wouldn't either.

A very good hedgehog

Aristotle asked what it was to be a good human and concluded that it was to excel at that which we are uniquely suited too. So a good eagle is one that can fly high, a good cheetah is a quick cheetah. Being a spikey ball scores big in the hedgehog community, roaring loudly less so.

This is ergon (it doesn't refer to parenthood but I'm spreading the jelly here a little).

A human's unique quality is reason. To live a good live we should reason as well as possible. We've been given reason so we should sweat our asset. Solve the problems of the mind, muse on logical, metaphysical things.

This is a handy view for a philosopher, so in this vein I've adapted the idea of ergon slightly to conclude that I'm great because I like a puddle. 

About this blog

They've already worked it out, you don't need to

I'm finding conversations, ethical dilemmas, situations I find myself in are relating to big ideas and events of history.

Aristotle has already decided my choice of sandwich.

So I'm doing myself a favour and letting philosophers take the strain so I don't have to work things out from scratch all over again.

I'll try not to make things up to fit an idea or shoehorn them in. That contrivance is dull and it'll show. I'll write only if I actually did find something Machiavelli said useful in dealing with the postman.

Send more socks

Archaeologists recently found the earliest piece of writing in Britain. It was a letter home from Roman soldier based on Hadrian's wall.

It said 'send more socks'.

Ockham and the ex

A C13th monk from Woking helped me the other day, with a tale of an ex-boyfriend and some dodgy jewellery.

A friend was having a nice old moan about her ex. A person in a shop had suggested her necklace, a present from him, was a fake.

Now people like a conspiracy. He would have known it was fake, she told me, this was typical of him.

It's very hard to argue against a conspiracy. Lot's of things might be possible. I might be writing this using only my ears, it's hard to disprove possibilities. The convoluted conspiracy also tends to be a bit more fun.

This can be frustrating in conversation for seekers of truth and calm reason like you and I. So I told her that while it might be true is was fake and it might even be true that he knew, that the truth is most likely the simplest explanation.

Probably, it was real and he wasn't a dodgy.

This is William of Ockham's razor. A system of logic that says the simplest explanation is most likely to be correct. It's useful.

Just nod and agree

I probably didn't fulfil my role as a sounding board to have a good old moan at. People just want you to nod and agree, especially when having an ex rant. They don't want medieval logic.

At least I didn't say 'Plurality must not be posited without necessity' as Ockham would have done. He was actually challenging the over elaborate theology of the time but the modern evolution of his idea is that the least convoluted explanation is most likely to be correct.

Want to know the outcome? The necklace was verified as genuine by a jeweller.