【每日阅读训练第四期——速度越障25系列】【25-08】文史哲

jay871750293

Official Weibo: http://weibo.com/u/3476904471

Hello guys~  
Here is today's exercise~
In the whole picture, it's about the philosophy, but don't panic, this time, the words and ideas concerning philosophy are much more understandable than my first shot about philosophy topic, the Hegel's philosophy of right.

Specifically speaking, there are three passages in all. First one is about the philosophy of firendship and the others are both discussing the pursit of happiness in life, but from two different great philosophers, Zhuangzi and Aristotle. By the way, the obstacle, the ideas from Aristotle's true happiness, includes 1738 words(much more than average)

Here we go~

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Part 1 Speaker

[Rephrase1]
homesickness

[dialog: 6:06]
[Transcript]

[Mp3]
[Source] http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/general/sixminute/2013/09/130919_6min_homesickness.shtml

Part 2 Speed

Article 1(Check the title later)
The Science and Philosophy of Friendship: Lessons from Aristotle on the Art of Connecting

by Maria Popova

[TIME2]

"Friends hold a mirror up to each other; through that mirror they can see each other in ways that would not otherwise be accessible to them, and it is this mirroring that helps them improve themselves as persons."

"A principal fruit of friendship," Francis Bacon wrote in his timeless meditation on the subject, "is the ease and discharge of the fulness and swellings of the heart, which passions of all kinds do cause and induce." For Thoreau, friendship was one of life's great rewards. But in today's cultural landscape of muddled relationships scattered across various platforms for connecting, amidst constant debates about whether our Facebook "friendships" are making us more or less happy, it pays to consider what friendship actually is. That's precisely what CUNY philosophy professor Massimo Pigliucci explores in Answers for Aristotle: How Science and Philosophy Can Lead Us to A More Meaningful Life (public library), which also gave us this provocative read on the science of what we call "intuition."

Philosophers and cognitive scientists agree that friendship is an essential ingredient of human happiness. But beyond the dry academic definitions – like, say, "voluntary interdependence between two persons over time, which is intended to facilitate socio-emotional goals of the participants, and may involve varying types and degrees of companionship, intimacy, affection and mutual assistance" – lies a body of compelling research that sheds light on how, precisely, friendship augments happiness. Pigliucci writes:

Happiness is influenced, as one might expect, by all of the “big five” personality traits: agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism, and openness. … As research conducted by Meliksah Demir and Lesley Weitekamp also clearly shows, however, friendship augments happiness above and beyond the basic effect of personality.
[words: 293]

[TIME3]
The way friendship enhances well-being, it turns out, has nothing to do with quantity and everything to do with quality – researchers confirm that it isn't the number of friends (or, in the case of Facebook, "friends") we have, but the nature of those relationships:

In particular, what makes for a good happiness-enhancing friendship is the degree of companionship (when you do things together with your friends) and of self-validation (when your friends reassure you that you are a good, worthy individual).

This is where Aristotle comes in: He recognized three types of love – agape, eros, and philia – which endure as an insightful model for illuminating the nature of our relationships. Pigliucci describes the taxonomy:

Agape is a broad kind of love, the kind that religious people feel that God has for us, or that a secular person may have for humanity at large. Eros, naturally, is more concerned with the type of love we have for sexual partners, though the Greeks meant it more broadly than we do. Philia is the type of love that concerns us here because it includes the sort of feelings we have for friends, family, and even business partners.

But this poses the obvious question of what separates love, or eros (itself a complex phenomenon nearly impossible to define, despite history's ample attempts) from friendship, or philia – a conundrum young E. B. White and James Thurber famously considered and Sartre ultimately failed at resolving. Pigliucci explains:

The obvious answer is that typically (though certainly not necessarily) you have sex with your eros partner but not with your philia friends. More subtly, however, philosophers have pointed out that love is an evaluative attitude, while friendship is a relational one. It makes perfect sense that you could be in love with someone who doesn’t reciprocate your feeling, but it is incoherent to say that one has a nonreciprocal friendship.
[words: 312]

[TIME4]
Aristotle further classified friendships into three distinct categories: of pleasure, of utility, and of virtue:

In friendships of pleasure, you and another person are friends because of the direct pleasure your friendship brings – for instance, you like and befriend people who are good conversationalists, or with whom you can go to concerts, and so on. Friendships of utility are those in which you gain a tangible benefit, either economic or political, from the relationship. Exploitation of other people is not necessarily implied by the idea of utility friendships – first, because the advantage can be reciprocal, and second, because a business or political relation doesn’t preclude having genuine feelings of affection for each other. For Aristotle, however, the highest kind of friendship was one of virtue: you are friends with someone because of the kind of person he is, that is, because of his virtues (understood in the ancient Greek sense of virtue ethics [and] not in the much more narrow modern sense, which is largely derived from the influence of Christianity.)

But what it really boils down to is that friendship affords us a more dimensional way of looking at ourselves and at the world, thus enhancing our understanding of the meaning of life. Once again, Pigliucci takes us back to Aristotle:

Aristotle’s opinion was that friends hold a mirror up to each other; through that mirror they can see each other in ways that would not otherwise be accessible to them, and it is this (reciprocal) mirroring that helps them improve themselves as persons. Friends, then, share a similar concept of eudaimonia [Greek for “having a good demon,” often translated as “happiness”] and help each other achieve it. So it is not just that friends are instrumentally good because they enrich our lives, but that they are an integral part of what it means to live the good life, according to Aristotle and other ancient Greek philosophers (like Epicurus). Of course, another reason to value the idea of friendship is its social dimension. In the words of philosopher Elizabeth Telfer, friendship provides “a degree and kind of consideration for others’ welfare which cannot exist outside

Answers for Aristotle is excellent in its entirety. Complement it with some heartening famous friendships, like those between Isaac Asimov and Carl Sagan, Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Julia Child and Avis DeVoto, Ursula Nordstrom and Maurice Sendak, and Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini.
[words: 402]
Source: Brain Pickings
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/09/19/aristotle-friendship/

Article 2(Check the title later)
Pursuit of Happiness (theories about Zhuangzi)

[TIME5]
A Pioneer of Happiness
“Instead  of running around pointing fingers, why not laugh? Better than laughing, why not go along with things? Then you can experience the mysterious oneness of the Dao. ” Zhuangzi would probably have laughed himself silly, watching the frenzy with which we compete for personal profit in the post-industrial era. He highly prized a good sense of humor. If only for a moment, laughter releases us from the rationality which dominates our calculating lives. Once we are released from the dictatorship of rationality, we are free to “go along with things.” Whereas Confucius places emphasis on human relationships, the Daoists rejoice in nature, and particularly the mysterious Dao, which is manifested through our natural surroundings. For Mencius, Buddha and Aristotle, the role of the mind is critical in the quest for happiness. The Daoists on the other hand, argue that we think too much, for it is our rational mind that has led us away from the intuitive Dao.

Zhuangzi, who was born about 2,300 years ago, during the tumultuous Warring States Period of ancient China, probably wrote the first piece of work in history devoted to happiness. This essay, which is called “Ultimate Happiness,” is now a chapter of the book named Zhuangzi, after the author.

Ultimate Happiness is Wu Wei
For Zhuangzi, a humorous and self-deprecating follower of Laozi, the Old Master, ultimate happiness is nothing but wuwei, the skill of doing nothing against the “Way” (Dao). Zhuangzi draws a clear distinction between two kinds of happiness. Most people value wealth, fame, and physical comfort, through delicious tastes, beautiful colors, attractive clothing and music. Once they dip their toes in these fleeting joys, they try to obtain more, and become uneasy if they cannot do so. Yet the Dao, a mysterious power which fills the cosmos and is reflected in the workings of nature, is the source of a much deeper form of happiness. We humans, who dwell in the midst of nature and are part of the Dao itself, only need to harness this power. This is similar to sitting in a car with a powerful engine running, while the gear is locked in neutral. We need to know how to get the car in gear. This is done through the practise of wuwei, which Zhuangzi often refers to as the skill of “going along with things,” or as we say nowadays, “going with the flow.”
[words: 402]

[TIME6]
Flow and the Dao
Talking about “flow,” Zhuangzi compares the wise person or sage to an expert swimmer, who can survive a powerful torrent by freely swimming with it. In the Dao of Pooh Benjamin Hoff compares the Daoist sage to Winnie the Pooh, who doesn’t know how to calculate profit and loss, but lives in the moment and finds contentment in simple things. Pooh doesn’t like meddling and “monkeying around,” and things simply seem to work out. And yet many of Zhuangzi’s sages are not born with this sort of virtue, but achieve it through a great deal of focused effort in the exercise of their unique skills. Butcher Ding, for example, achieves happiness by perfecting the skill of chopping up ox carcasses. This was one of the most despised professions in ancient China, and yet Ding goes about his work with great pride and pleasure, claiming that the more skillful he gets at chopping meat, the more skillful he gets at “going along with things” and harmonizing with the Dao. Sages like Ding and the cart maker P’ien have no interest in academic learning, as they think words are not a very efficient way to discover the Dao and obtain genuine happiness. By following the practise of wuwei and drawing closer to the Dao, blue-collar sages like Ding and P’ien obtain De or virtue, which is itself a sort of indescribable power, and is clearly quite different from the virtues of the Confucians or Platonists.

Daoist Techniques
An equally popular way of obtaining peace of mind among Daoists, and especially religious Daoists, is through special breathing techniques. These techniques are probably the origin of qigong practices in Taiji, which focus on the cultivation of qi, a vital energy that fills the body. It is quite possible that Daoist breathing techniques emerged from Indian yoga, which uses them in combination with various postures for the attainment of bliss
[words: 319]
http://www.pursuit-of-happiness.org/history-of-happiness/zhuangzi/

Part 3 Obstacle

Article 3(Check the title later)
Pursuit of Happiness (theories about Aristotle)

[Paraphase7]

Happiness as the Ultimate Purpose of Human Existence
One of Aristotle’s most influential works is the Nicomachean Ethics, where he presents a theory of happiness that is still relevant today, over 2300 years later. The key question Aristotle seeks to answer in these lectures is: what is the ultimate purpose of human existence? What is that end or goal for which we should direct all of our activities? Everywhere we see people seeking pleasure, wealth, and a good reputation. But while each of these has some value, none of them can occupy the place of the chief good for which humanity should aim. To be an ultimate end, an act must be self-sufficient and final, “that which is always desirable in itself and never for the sake of something else,” and it must be attainable by man. Aristotle claims that nearly everyone would agree that happiness is the end which meets all these requirements. It is easy enough to see that we desire money, pleasure, and honor only because we believe that these goods will make us happy. It seems that all other goods are a means towards obtaining happiness, while happiness is always an end in itself.

The Greek word that usually gets translated as “happiness” is eudaimonia, and like most translations from ancient languages, this can be misleading. The main trouble is that happiness (especially in modern America) is often conceived of as a subjective state of mind, as when one says one is happy when one is enjoying a cool beer on a hot day, or is out “having fun” with one’s friends. For Aristotle, however, happiness is a final end or goal that encompasses the totality of one’s life. It is not something that can be gained or lost in a few hours, like pleasurable sensations. It is more like the ultimate value of your life as lived up to this moment, measuring how well you have lived up to your full potential as a human being. For this reason, one cannot really make any pronouncements about whether one has lived a happy life until it is over, just as we would not say of a football game that it was a “great game” at halftime (indeed we know of many such games that turn out to be blowouts or duds). For the same reason we cannot say that children are happy, anymore than we can say that an acorn is a tree, for the potential for a flourishing human life has not yet been realized. As Aristotle says, “for as it is not one swallow or one fine day that makes a spring, so it is not one day or a short time that makes a man blessed and happy.” ( Nichomachean Ethics,1098a18)

The Hierarchical View of Nature
In order to explain human happiness, Aristotle draws on a view of nature he derived from his biological investigations. If we look at nature, we notice that there are four different kinds of things that exist in the world, each one defined by a different purpose:

Mineral: rocks, metals and other lifeless things. The only goal which these things seek is to come to a rest. They are “beyond stupid” since they are inanimate objects with no soul

Vegetative: plants and other wildlife. Here we see a new kind of thing emerge,something which is alive. Because plants seek nourishment and growth, they have souls and can be even said to be satisfied when they attain these goals

Animal: all the creatures we study as belonging to the animal kingdom. Here we see a higher level of life emerge: animals seek pleasure and reproduction, and we can talk about a happy or sad dog, for example, to the extent that they are healthy and lead a pleasant life

Human: what is it that makes human beings different from the rest of the animal kingdom? Aristotle answers: Reason(key word, which means the ability to think, understand, and form judgments that are based on facts [Longman]). Only humans are capable of acting according to principles, and in so doing taking responsibility for their choices. We can blame Johnny for stealing the candy since he knows it is wrong,” but we wouldn’t blame an animal since it doesn’t know any better.

It seems that our unique function is to reason: by reasoning things out we attain our ends, solve our problems, and hence live a life that is qualitatively different in kind from plants or animals. The good for a human is different from the good for an animal because we have different capacities or potentialities. We have a rational capacity and the exercising of this capacity is thus the perfecting of our natures as human beings. For this reason, pleasure alone cannot constitute human happiness, for pleasure is what animals seek and human beings have higher capacities than animals. The goal is not to annihilate our physical urges, however, but rather to channel them in ways that are appropriate to our natures as rational animals.

Thus Aristotle gives us his definition of happiness:

…the function of man is to live a certain kind of life, and this activity implies a rational principle, and the function of a good man is the good and noble performance of these, and if any action is well performed it is performed in accord with the appropriate excellence: if this is the case, then happiness turns out to be an activity of the soul in accordance with virtue. (Nichomachean Ethics,1098a13)

The Pursuit of Happiness as the Exercise of Virtue
In this last quote we can see another important feature of Aristotle’s theory: the link between the concepts of happiness and virtue. Aristotle tells us that the most important factor in the effort to achieve happiness is to have a good moral character — what he calls “complete virtue.” But being virtuous is not a passive state: one must act in accordance with virtue. Nor is it enough to have a few virtues; rather one must strive to possess all of them. As Aristotle writes:

He is happy who lives in accordance with complete virtue and is sufficiently equipped with external goods, not for some chance period but throughout a complete life. (Nichomachean Ethics,1101a10)

According to Aristotle, happiness consists in achieving, through the course of a whole lifetime all the goods — health, wealth, knowledge, friends, etc., that lead to the perfection of human nature and to the enrichment of human life. This requires us to make choices, some of which may be very difficult. Often the lesser good promises immediate pleasure and is more tempting, while the greater good is painful and requires some sort of sacrifice. For example, it may be easier and more enjoyable to spend the night watching television, but you know that you will be better off if you spend it researching for your term paper. Developing a good character requires a strong effort of will to do the right thing, even in difficult situations.

Another example which is becoming more and more of a problem in our society today is the taking of drugs. For a fairly small price, one can immediately take one’s mind off of one’s troubles and experience deep euphoria by popping an oxycontin pill or snorting some cocaine. Yet, inevitably, this short-term pleasure will lead to longer term pain. A few hours later you may feel miserable and so need to take the drug again, which leads to a never ending spiral of need and relief. Addiction inevitably drains your funds and provides a burden to your friends and family. All of those virtues—generosity, temperance, friendship, courage, etc, that make up the good life appear to be conspicuously absent in a life of drug use.

Aristotle would be strongly critical of the culture of “instant gratification” which seems to predominate in our society today. In order to achieve the life of complete virtue, we need to make the right choices, and this involves keeping our eye on the future, on the ultimate result we want for our lives as a whole. We will not achieve happiness simply by enjoying the pleasures of the moment. Unfortunately, this is something most people are not able to overcome in themselves. As he laments, “the mass of mankind are evidently quite slavish in their tastes, preferring a life suitable to beasts (Nichomachean Ethics, 1095b 20) Later in the Ethics Aristotle will draw attention to the concept of akrasia, or weakness of the will. In many cases the overwhelming prospect of some great pleasure obscures one’s perception of what is truly good. Fortunately, this natural disposition is curable through training, which for Aristotle meant education and the constant aim to perfect virtue. As he puts it, a clumsy archer may indeed get better with practice, so long as he keeps aiming for the target.

Note also that it is not enough to think about doing the right thing, or even intend to do the right thing: we have to actually do it. Thus, it is one thing to think of writing the great American novel, another to actually write it. When we impose a form and order upon all those letters to actually produce a compelling story or essay, we are manifesting our rational potential, and the result of that is a sense of deep fulfillment. Or to take another example, when we exercise our citizenship by voting, we are manifesting our rational potential in yet another way, by taking responsibility for our community. There are myriad ways in which we can exercise our latent virtue in this way, and it would seem that the fullest attainment of human happiness would be one which brought all these ways together in a comprehensive rational life-plan.

There is yet another activity few people engage in which is required to live a truly happy life, according to Aristotle: intellectual contemplation. Since our nature is to be rational, the ultimate perfection of our natures is rational reflection. This means having an intellectual curiosity which perpetuates that natural wonder to know which begins in childhood but seems to be stamped out soon thereafter. For Aristotle, education should be about the cultivation of character, and this involves a practical and a theoretical component. The practical component is the acquisition of a moral character, as discussed above. The theoretical component is the making of a philosopher. Here there is no tangible reward, but the critical questioning of things raises our minds above the realm of nature and closer to the abode of the gods.
[words: 1738]
Source: Pursuit of Hapiness
http://www.pursuit-of-happiness.org/history-of-happiness/aristotle/

irvan

占个座〜〜〜
______________
越障真的……好长= =
09:53
The ultimate purpose of human existence
The essence of happiness and how to realize it

lytymay

板凳！！！！！！

speaking 很棒耶
homesick
一个问题
when people will feel home sick
feel lonely
smell landscape ……
比较简单啦，就没怎么记 - -
英英也是可以驾驭的 嘿嘿

speed：
1. 2:09
friendship is a mirror
the FACEBOOk friendship

2. 2:05
what measure the friendship is the quality other than quantity
the three type of love
the difference
the pilla is the one we concern

3. 2:58
亚里士多德‘s opinion
friendship has three categories
of pleasure
of utility
of virtue   the one most。。。
friendship is a mirror
show who you are

4. 3:02
庄子 introduction
无为 the  theory

5. 2:08
how to be wuwei
example：庖丁解牛！哈哈
the technique：太极，气功。。。。印度瑜伽→ →？？

小鱼上树

辛苦啦，以后请叫我小鱼上首页

25-08

1 6min

Homesickness, isolated, 70% of students are suffering fromtypical homesick when they start college. Several tips to help- social media,meet new friends, get involved in local people, talk to a friend or aprofession for help. Knowing I am homesick is the first step to get better.

2 293 1min49

What friendship do to us- new book- definition offriendship,  happiness and therelationship between them.

3 312 1min40

It’s all about quality, not quantity.- 3 categories of love-god love, sex love and friendship- not really a perfect theory.

4 402 1min50

Classified friendship to 3 kinds- define what good friend isagain… omg, I quit…

5 402 2min04

Ultimate happiness- go with the flow- we think too much

6 319 1min39

Paoding was happy because he followed the natural rule ofdao. Taiji is another example.

kimwang53

小鱼上树 发表于 2013-9-22 23:03
辛苦啦，以后请叫我小鱼上首页

这。。。真神了。。。

1.46
1.52
2.30
2.09
1.29

9.48
谢谢jay~喜欢哲学

Changpoyu

抢座位！！！

Day2013.9.22

Listen（喜欢这个类型的听力，bbc,6min,不错)：

No matter where you are home is the only thing you miss for ever.

This listen talk about homesickness ,include the bad influence from homesickness ,it cause you feel stressful pain isolate lonely ,make you want to withdraw something and give up to go back home,exceedingly in the fresh man of university 70%student miss their home ,but thank for the technology we can see our family members with phone computer like FaceTime .And we it cause our sad we can talk to our friend(but most time when we get homesickness we do not have friend otherwise some people will not miss home),may be we can join in the local activities.

Get homesickness is a normal things and remember when you really need go back home your parents is waiting for you and home is your home of ever.

疏离无罪

首页，明天补，看见哲学是要跪啊
楼上几位抢座位真效率

01:51
What friendship mean to up.The relationship between friendship and happiness.

02:12
Not the quantities of friends but the degree of companionship enhance the happiness.
Three kinds of love.
The difference between the love of friends and that of sexal partner.

02:20
Three kinds of friendship.
Friends are mirrors to us.
Other opinions of ancient greeks to the friendship.

02:37
Zhuangzi is the pioneer of the happiness.
Introduce the main idea about the ultimate happiness of zhuangzi.

02:19
How to flow the dao.庖丁解牛 都出来了。。
The techniques of Dao.  为什么说来自阿三的瑜伽。。坑爹

12:01
Aristotle thought that Ultimate purpose of human is happiness.
The happiness today is different from what Aristotle means.This word is mistransfered.
It should be more focus on moral level.In Aristotle's view,People can not say they are happy until the end of  their life.
Aristotle used 4 kinds of thing in the nature to explain happiness.
Reason makes people different from animals.Pleasure is not enough to human's happiness.
Aristotle's defination of happiness is about the link between happiness and virtue.Good moral character and achieving.
Two examples are followed.
Aristotle blamed the people who just enjoy the moment.

ttlovej

抢位，补作业T T


TIME 2 3'03
TIME 3 2'10
TIME 4 2'56
TIME 5 3'30
TIME 6 2'18

fiona二战要上7

居然上了首页。。。
Time 2  2’35
Digging for the true meaning of friendship.
Time 3  2’23
Three kinds of feeling make for a good happiness-enhancing friendship.
Time 4  3’15
Aristotle further classified friendships into three distinct categories. Friends hold a mirror up to each other ,and it is this mirroring that helps them improve themselves as persons
Time 5   3’32
The introduction of Zhuangzi and his thought of wuwei.
Time 6   3’04
The application of Dao and its representatives.

chasedream1122

1'35
2'12
1'59
2'26
2'06
--The meaning of friendship and how philosophers view it, including Aristotle's  3 types of companionship and 3 distinct categories of friendship.
-- Laozi and Daoism's believes of happiness--Wuwei and go with the flow.

10'01
How Aristotle define happiness and how can we achieve it by fulfilling the exercise of virtue.