Since the soul is important, we need to keep it in a good environment. To begin with, to interact on the earth, a body is needed. Virtue in context, is the best use of a thing. The virtue of the body is to be alive and well as long as possible to house the soul. Although a person can be happy despite physical discomfort, the ideal is to be healthy so everything can be enjoyed at it’s fullest. This body has needs and therefore has appetites to fill these needs. If we don’t control them, virtue is affected and appetites, in the name of bringing enjoyment, can cause damage to the body. To little of an appetite can also starve a person. The goal is to temper them so our body can have a long painless life. Our soul can then enjoy each experience all the more.

After the appetites, we have passions and then after that is our reasoning faculties. Each of these areas build on each other and the boundaries are obscure. Sometimes it is difficult to differentiate exactly where one stops and the other begins. Our passions contain our ambitions. In order to get what we want at times we have to temper appetites. This is true especially in sports. The virtue of our passions is to give our soul enjoyment. They have to be tempered with patience. Passions vary so people shouldn’t judge others if they don’t have like passions. Reasoning faculties exist to help us keep the body healthy and to direct our passions. There are various areas it pulls on to make decisions. Some things we learn along the way and put into memory to use later and other things we figure out on the spot. This is only a vague summary as numerous books have been written on the subject.

When involved in politics, the same patterns are followed. The citizen’s physical safety is the foundation. As physical needs are met, people become free to use their faculties for things other than survival. The physical actions that are out of bounds and cause harm to citizens must be tempered with law and enforcement. In the same way an individual doesn’t want to become a slave to another person’s pressing needs, a republic shouldn’t stifle it’s citizen’s passions in order to appease a group. The virtue of the form of friendship we call government is to keep those who participate as citizens safe and in order. This is so each citizen can be free to pursue their own passions. There is a certain satisfaction when one exercises each area of his soul and body. Exercise only comes with resistance. As each person overcomes their own obstacles, they make the best use of their faculties and have the satisfaction that comes with things working at their peak performance. A secure environment is necessary for this but removing obstacles should be done by individuals.

Aristotle quoted an actor that said he wanted to be on the stage first since people always love the first person the most. This applies to our passions and how we raise children too. That will be our next subject. See you in a few!

Give a crushing blow to his face 

There are two realms that are apparent to all of us. The material realm consists of the things our senses pick up while the spiritual is the area where our being exists. Our emotions, passions and drive originates from this area. The Ancient Greeks considered the spirit realm a realm of absolutes, a place where things are pure and eternal. Christians have a similar belief. By looking at the subject of happiness, we see these principles at work. We call the place of a person’s being, a soul. The ultimate function of a soul, or the best use of it is happiness.

The reason this makes sense is that we observe how good circumstances are helpful but they aren’t absolutely necessary for happiness. Sometimes a person is forced by circumstances to make the best of what they have. Someone who works at being happy within their soul by enjoying what is within reach, will enjoy life much more than a person who is completely dependent on circumstances. We can say that circumstances are variable while virtue is absolute. It is ideal for a person to have good circumstances coupled with happiness within their soul. But since we see that having what one wants all the time doesn’t necessarily bring happiness, addressing the soul is more important.

The way that souls are connected is what we call the spiritual realm, but we all have individual souls. Love, the pleasure we get from another person and happiness, the pleasure we get out of life are both best when based in the soul. This makes it so the unsure realm of circumstances cannot affect them. When we look at politics, it isn’t the circumstances of a nation that makes them great, but what kind of heart the people have collectively. That is why it is important to teach those who are young how to defend the weak and to stand up for what is right. Our ultimate goal is happiness and when people are settled within their souls, they are better at looking at things objectively and making good choices. This is the goal of virtue and grace; possessing virtue and a way to make the best of whatever comes our way.

We package our feelings as gifts wrapped in words

We use oceans, stars and the moon

Why do they call it falling in love 

As we age and gain experience, we have a drive to give that knowledge to future generations so they don’t have to learn things the hard way as we did. This drive is what philosophers have toward future generations. The Greeks preserved their observations about life and built on each others conclusions. I have been giving a loose review of Aristotle’s Politics. It is interesting how people throughout history faced the challenges as we do and they experimented with different methods to deal with them. The results can be observed and we can learn from them.

A person given to vice will sacrifice the greater good for momentary pleasures. This makes for short lived pleasure and dependencies. To bring out the best in anything, we address two areas; preservation and actuation. We want to preserve good things for the longest time possible while encouraging the use of each person’s individual passions. The joy of revealing what is in a person’s heart and mind requires a secure environment since there are always those who take advantage or are unjust. A way we try to guarantee this is through contracts. Marriage is a contract to preserve the good between two people and to provide an environment for both people to bring out their best efforts and ideas and to bring up children who perpetuate them. A country is similar to a family. A constitution is the contract between good people to provide a secure environment and give its citizens an environment to express themselves and build what is in their hearts.

In ethics, the goal is lasting happiness. The use of a person’s passions are good unless they jeopardize the ability to have a good life. At that point they become vises. In politics, the goal is to have a lasting republic where people can enjoy freedom and security. These make the best foundation for happiness. We all have causes and personalities that we like. When they become more important than freedom and security for everyone, they become tyranny. In the same way that passions aren’t bad in themselves, our causes are usually good. Personalities we like can be virtuous initially. But if what they do jeopardizes freedom and security, an erosion occurs and the result is a net loss. The goodness can last as long as the personality or interest in the cause is there, but the country falls apart afterward. This is similar to when passions wane and one ends up with their life in a mess.

Concerning the style of governing, a democracy works best when people are all similar such as a farming community. When a city engages in commerce or goes to war, there is a need for skill in governing. That is where a aristocracy works better. Both a monarchy and aristocracy are forms of leadership where we look for the best and brightest. These are stabilized inside the framework of a constitution where the people have defined their responsibilities and limited the scope of their involvement in the affairs of the country.