Friday, February 16, 2007

The Good is Often the Enemy of the Best



. . . thoughts on the mean, and thus virtue, in the real world of baseball . . .


http://baseballguru.com/lheaphy/analysislheaphy03.html


. . . which is an excerpt from: Baseball & Philosophy: Thinking Outside the Batter's Box, edited by Eric Bronson, Open Court Publishing, March, 2004, Women Playing Hardball by Leslie Heaphy

other links:

http://www.briomag.com/briomagazine/reallife/a0004603.html
http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/submit/Sepulveda_Richard_Lefty1.stm
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1208/is_n14_v217/ai_14960870
http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Ila_Borders
http://www.opencourtbooks.com/books_n/baseball.htm
http://www.ronniewoowoo.com/weeklyUpdate.htm

Dionysian Theatre of Acharnai Discovered

Greek Archaeologists Discover Theater

8:27 PM ET February 15, 2007

By NICHOLAS PAPHITIS

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Sections of an ancient Greek theater were discovered on Thursday during construction work in an Athens suburb, archaeologists said.

Until now, only two such buildings were known in the ancient city where western theater originated more than 2,500 years ago.

Fifteen rows of concentric stone seats have been located so far in the northwestern suburb of Menidi, according to Vivi Vassilopoulou, Greece's general director of antiquities.

"Another section appears to lie under a nearby road," she told The Associated Press.

"(The remains) were discovered during excavation work, supervised by archaeologists, for a new building," Vassilopoulou said. "But it is still very early to offer any conclusions."

The structure has not yet been dated, and further details are expected to emerge following a full excavation.

Menidi is thought to be built over the ancient village of Acharnae, the largest of a string of rural settlements outside ancient Athens. Ancient writers mention a theater at Acharnae, but no traces of it had been found until now.

The village was linked with Dionysos, the ancient god of theater and wine, as the Athenians believed that ivy _ his sacred plant _ first grew there.

Built in semicircular tiers on hillsides, ancient theaters were monumental, open-air structures that could seat thousands of spectators.

Theater first emerged as an art form in late 6th century B.C. Athens, where ancient playwrights competed for a prize during the annual festival of Dionysos _ in whose cult the art originated.

The works of Sophocles, Aeschylus, Euripides and Aristophanes were performed in the theater of Dionysos under the Acropolis.

Originally a terrace where spectators sat on the bare earth above a circular stage, it was rebuilt in stone during the 4th century B.C. and could sit up to 14,000 people.

Another smaller theater has been discovered in southern Athens.

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Philosopher Death Match: Aristotle vs Mae West

Mae West's philosophy reflects a working-class sensibility, wittily attuned to prevalent male attitudes and realities toward women, work, sexuality and life. West sees wisdom residing in regular folks who must live through the harshness of everyday life. West trashes the notion that it is the elite who know what is real, hence ethical and hence good, in life. West recognizes that emotion is more powerful and satisfying than reason, and reason, on its own, is ridiculously lacking in answers. In all realms, emotion has a claim to parity with, and authority over, reason.



Surviving fragments of the West Philosophy:

I am all woman.

You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.

It's not what I do, but the way I do it. It's not what I say, but the way I say it.

It's not what you get that counts, but what you give.

When choosing between two evils, I always like to try the one I've never tried before.

Whenever I'm caught between two evils, I take the one I've never tried.

Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before.

I'll try anything once, twice if I like it, three times to make sure.

I never loved another person the way I loved myself.

Sex is emotion in motion.

Virtue has its own reward, but no sale at the box office.

Those who are easily shocked should be shocked more often.

It ain't no sin if you crack a few laws now and then, just so long as you don't break any.

I expect it'll
(going to prison) be the making of me.

The time I spent in jail was about the most profitable days of my life.

Too much of a good thing can be wonderful.

When I'm good, I'm very good. But when I'm bad I'm better.

I wrote the story myself. It's about a girl who lost her reputation and never missed it.

If I asked for a cup of coffee, someone would search for the double meaning.

It is better to be looked over than overlooked.

A hard man is good to find.

A man can be short and dumpy and getting bald but if he has fire, women will like him.

A man has one hundred dollars and you leave him with two dollars, that's subtraction.

A man's kiss is his signature.

An ounce of performance is worth pounds of promises.

Anything worth doing is worth doing slowly.

Give a man a free hand and he'll run it all over you.

Good sex is like good bridge. If you don't have a good partner, you'd better have a good hand.

He who hesitates is a damned fool.

He who hesitates is last.

He's the kind of man a woman would have to marry to get rid of.

Right now I think censorship is necessary; the things they're doing and saying in films right now just shouldn't be allowed. There's no dignity anymore and I think that's very important.

I believe in censorship. I made a fortune out of it.

I generally avoid temptation unless I can't resist it.

I like restraint, if it doesn't go too far.

I never worry about diets. The only carrots that interest me are the number you get in a diamond.

I only have 'yes' men around me. Who needs 'no' men?

I only like two kinds of men, domestic and imported.

I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.

It's hard to be funny when you have to be clean.

It's not the men in my life that count, it's the life in my men.

Keep a diary, and someday it'll keep you.

Marriage is a great institution. No family should be without it.

Marriage is a great institution, but I'm not ready for an institution.

We don't think about marriage as something going on and on, with children from generation to generation. It's often just a passing whim.

I'm single because I was born that way.

A dame that knows the ropes isn't likely to get tied up.

One and one is two, and two and two is four, and five will get you ten if you know how to work it.

Save a boyfriend for a rainy day - and another, in case it doesn't rain.

Say what you want about long dresses, but they cover a multitude of shins.

She's the kind of girl who climbed the ladder of success wrong by wrong.

Ten men waiting for me at the door? Send one of them home, I'm tired.

To err is human, but it feels divine.

Too much of a good thing can be taxing.

I feel like a million tonight, but one at a time.

When women go wrong, men go right after them.

It's (sexual relationships) just this physical thing.

I like the kinda comedy that imitates me.

Anytime you take religion for a joke, the laugh's on you.

I"m going to drown, down in those troubled waters (religion), they're creeping around my soul.

It takes two to get one in trouble.

These girls (prostitutes) are willing to work, but how can they when the law is always ready to pounce on them and send them back to the Workhouse?

Find'em, fool'em and forget'em.

I'm no angel, but I've spread my wings a bit.

A man in the house is worth two in the street.

I'm a woman of very few words, but lots of action.

Too many girls follow the line of least resistance--but a good line is hard to resist.

Some men are all right in their place--if they only knew the right places!

Every man I meet wants to protect me. I can't figure out what from.

Any time you got nothing to do--and lots of time to do it--come on up.

Men are all alike--except the one you've met who's different.

Don't marry a man to reform him - that's what reform schools are for.

All discarded lovers should be given a second chance, but with somebody else.

The score never interested me, only the game.

Men are my hobby, if I ever got married I'd have to give it up.

Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?

I'm no model lady. A model's just an imitation of the real thing.

Women with "pasts" interest men because men hope that history will repeat itself.

Opportunity knocks for every man, but you have to give a woman a ring.

There are no withholding taxes on the wages of sin.

The best way to learn to be a lady is to see how other ladies do it.

Let men see what's coming to them, and women will get what's coming to them.

The curve is more powerful than the sword.

I didn't discover curves; I only uncovered them.

I like a man who's good, but not too good--for the good die young, and I hate a dead one.

Some women pick men to marry--and others pick them to pieces.

A woman in love can't be reasonable--or she probably wouldn't be in love.

You can do what you want, but saving love doesn't bring any interest.

Love isn't an emotion or an instinct--it's an art.

Love conquers all things except poverty and toothache.


Love is the only industry which can't operate on a five-day week.

Women want certain things in marriage--the right to a title and a front seat in the lap of luxury.

Men are easy to get but hard to keep.

It's easy to get married, but hard to stay that way.

Kiss and make up--but too much makeup has ruined many a kiss.

A girl in the convertible is worth five in the phone book.

Life's just a merry-go-round. Come on up. You might get a brass ring.

You may admire a girl's curves on the first introduction, but the second meeting shows up new angles.

I take it out in the open and laugh at it.

The best way to hold a man is in your arms.

Brains are an asset to the woman in love who's smart enough to hide 'em.

Look your best--who said love is blind?

Girls, give all your gentlemen friends an even break, even if you have to break them in the attempt.

Cultivate your curves--they may be dangerous but they won't be avoided.

Love thy neighbor--and if he happens to be tall, debonair and devastating, it will be that much easier.

If you put your foot in it, be sure it's your best foot.

It's all right for a perfect stranger to kiss your hand as long as he's perfect.

The best way to behave is to misbehave.

Don't ever make the same mistake twice, unless it pays.


A man has more character in his face at forty than at twenty--he has suffered longer.

Don't come crawlin' to a man for love--he likes to get a run for his money.

Don't cry for a man who's left you--the next one may fall for your smile.

Don't keep a man guessing too long--he's sure to find the answer somewhere else.

Never ask a man where's he's been. If he's out on legitimate business, he doesn't need an alibi. And, girls, if he has been out on illegitimate business, it's your own fault.

Some of the wildest men make the best pets.

Let the crooks look out for themselves.

I've got to do it (speak out) as a citizen. i've got to do it for society. They (gangsters) threaten us under penalty of having acid thrown in our faces, and they don't stop at threats either.

I'm the first personality since Chaplin that's got the masses. I've got all classes and all ages.

I've been rich and I've been poor. Believe me, rich is better.

Did they expect a sermon? Why weren't they in church if they were so religious?

Goodness had nothing to do with it.

Yeah, honey, but you can't prove a thing.


http://www.marxists.org/subject/women/authors/forsythe/mae.htm
http://www.adherents.com/people/pw/Mae_West.html

Where Is Your Reality Now?

'nuff said

http://womensbioethics.blogspot.com/2007/01/first-us-uterus-transplant-planned-is.html
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/natalie_bennett/2006/12/congo_the_inhumanity_of_men.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15704030/site/newsweek/
http://ourbodiesourblog.org/blog/2007/01/pregnancy_by_any_means_necessary.php

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Let's be honest, it's Luperca'lia.

Happy Luperca'lia!





http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Lupercalia.html

Monday, February 12, 2007

Homework 02/13/07

Aristotle exclaims that the goal of the individual is happy fulfillment (eudaimonia). He gives a dissertation on the different things we call by the name of happiness, and then accepts or rejects them as being true happiness. He shows that good is preferable over bad, and that good brings happiness and fulfillment while bad brings unhappiness and unfulfillment. The goal of the philosophy of ethics is to instruct the individual on how best to determine good and bad things. Aristotle explains that we all want more good in our lives so that we can be more happily fulfilled. Thus a life of happy fulfillment, eudaimonia, is good. Then we can say that the goal of the philosophy of politics is to use the results from the philosophy of ethics, and all the other philosophies, to instruct people on how best to strive together for the greater good – a greater Eudaimonia.


Firstly, the philosophy must define its terms and put them in some sort of order so that all aspects of a good life can be examined. He is laying the foundation of the science. He walks through the definition and ordering process for us so we can apply it to these, and other, things. Aristotle explains that there is not a single great and divine Good, but actually an orderly set of little goods that if coordinated to the same goal amount to a greater good. Doing a thing correctly is good. Doing little things correctly are little goods, and big things done correctly are big goods. All big goods are actually complicated arrangements of many little goods which, when each is done well, automatically advances one toward a greater good. When doing a thing no longer leads to a greater thing, but is an end in itself – we have reached the highest good that all those subordinated little goods were aiming for.


In the case of emotions, Aristotle describes a way to discern the best actions. He describes the soul of man has having two parts: the rational and the irrational, reason and emotion. All of our desires and passions well forth from our emotions. The goal of the moral man is to make these emotions subordinate to the wishes of reason. If the emotions are left to find their own way the result will be less than good, and perhaps downright bad. Aristotle relates that when we make choices purely on the basis of pleasure or pain we will find that the pleasurous does not always lead to the good, and the painful does not always lead away from the good. He shows examples to highlight his thought. Generally, the immature and ordinary man will let pleasure and pain, and therefore a false sense of good and bad, lead him unknowingly down the path of vice instead of virtue. Aristotle introduces us to the mean in order to use reason to avoid pitfalls in navigating through the polarities of the vices. The mean is a point between two extremes of vice, not halfway but rather somewhere along the spectrum between deficiency and excess where the best attributes of the vice combines to form a virtue. These means between all the vices is the path of virtue, hence the way to the highest good. We use the mean in order to make virtuous choices, and thereby construct a good life from the repetition of virtuous acts. Repeating virtuous acts makes it easier to discern and perform future virtuous acts. But the individual needs guidance to choose the virtues of the greater good. Politics guides us in a community effort to build good lives for the greatest number of people, and hence, the greater good. Many good lives are more of a good thing, and thus a higher good, than one good life.


The choices we have to make are further made difficult because each situation is different. The mean (i.e. the virtuous, the good) of a situation changes with the particulars. The virtuous man can discern the truth in moral dilemmas, and choose to act correctly within the particular situation.


After we understand that an act of virtue or vice is a conscious choice, we then can use this freedom of choice to live the best life. The trick is applying the philosophy of politics to everyday life. Aristotle shows us that vices have two poles, excess and deficiency. Both excess and deficiency are bad things as they cause bad actions. Somewhere between excess and deficiency is the mean, and it is a good thing because it causes good actions:


the mean between cowardice and recklessness is courage.

the mean between self-indulgence and insensitivity is self-control.

the mean between extravagance and stinginess in giving is generosity.

the mean between stinginess and extravagance in taking is generosity.

the mean between meanness and vulgarity is magnificence.

the mean between vanity and smallmindedness is highmindedness.

the mean between ambitiousness and unambitiousness is the right amount of ambitiousness.

the mean between apathy and shorttemperedness is gentleness.

the mean between boastfulness and self-depreciation is truthfulness.

the mean between buffoonery and boorishness is wittiness.

the mean between grouchiness and obsequiousness is friendliness.

the mean between bashfulness and shamelessness is modesty.

the mean between envy and spite is righteous indignation.


To further describe one of the above examples: buffoonery is clownish, immature and prankish amusement, while boorishness is rude, insensitive and uncouth amusement. Wittiness, on the other hand, is ingenious insight into a situation that reveals an incongruity that evokes laughter. It is clear that in the matter of amusement, boorishness is the deficiency, buffoonery is the excess, and the mean is wittiness – characterized by its virtue of being not only funny, but insightful, and therefore good.


Aiming for the mean in our actions leads to a life of undeniable good, though the exact particulars of each and every action will not have the exact same characteristics. If there was an Absolute Good, as Plato thought, then all good actions must partake of the qualities of this Good. But if any undeniably good-resulting action can be demonstrated to be at odds with yet another undeniably good-resulting action, in regards to the particulars of the choices made, then there simply cannot be an absolute good. Good is fluid, not fixed. Nature is imperfect, and so is good.


Aristotle also teaches that in some emotions the mean is actually all the way over to one extreme, as in fear. Aristotle posits that along the spectrum of fear, the opposites are cowardice and courage. Courage being a mean of itself as Aristotle demonstrates with courage being the mean between cowardice and recklessness in the emotion of confidence. Therefore, despite the emotion and despite the distance between the extremes of that emotion, the mean remains the same.


The freedom of choice and the freedom to act upon those choices is a gift with a moral responsibility. Aristotle rejects the claim of Socrates that no man is willingly bad. Aristotle believes every man makes a conscious decision to be either bad or good, and realizes the consequences of the choice. Common law and history make it plain that because man has choice, he is obligated to choose correctly for the greater good. This also means that each man is personally responsible for the state of his own character, whether virtuous or vicious.


Silence of the lambs . . .


Alone, eh? You all, except Carrie, have decided not to post . . . even a comment, even to say: "Hey, Ed, you're nuts!" Fine. (Fucked-up, Insecure, Neurotic & Emotional). Not even an email of acknowledgement of being. Fine. Virtue or Viciousness? Slap me? Why shouldn't I slap you? Philosophy? Geez! Ya gotta say something to philosophize. Class is tomorrow . . . maybe I'll seeya there, and maybe not, but I won't be around this page for a while. It's all yours, have fun.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Hello? Is there anybody else here?

Life Line
by Harry Nilsson

Down to the bottom,
Hello
Is there anybody else here?

It’s cold and I’m so lonely,
Hello!
Is there anybody else here?

Hello (Hello, Hello, Hello)
Won’t you throw me down a Life Line?
I’m so afraid of darkness,
And down here it’s just like night time.

Oobelie, Ooobely, Oogolie, Oogolie,
Oohs..Are all around me.
Hello!
Will you please send down a Life Line?

Down,
And there isn’t any hope for me,
Unless this dream which seems so real,
Is just a fantasy.