In the following, I shall discuss the principles of Aristotle's ethical and political theory, paying close attention to what Aristotle meant by eudaimonia , and what he didnt'. Most of the following quotes are from the beginning of Book 1 of the Nicomachean Ethics ( as published on the web by...
Hunting and livestock farming are both ways of coercively exploiting animals. The fundamental difference is that farming is stationary and involves the "breaking in" of the animal. Aristotle thought of brigands as basically hunters. Others support themselves by hunting, which is of different...
Aristotle argued that the state is the form of society with the highest purpose: “Every state is an association of some kind, and every association is established with a view to some good; for mankind always act in order to obtain that which they think good. But, if all associations aim at some...
This post is part of a series exploring Principles of Economics by Carl Menger. The following explores content from chapter 3 . Previously in this series: Value Theory Before Menger To understand Menger's insight into value (and the Classical School's lack thereof), it would be useful to brush...
This post is part of a series exploring Principles of Economics by Carl Menger. The following explores content from chapter 2 . Previously in this series: Menger on Time and Uncertainty NEEDS ARISE FROM OUR drives and the drives are imbedded in our nature. An imperfect satisfaction of needs leads to...
This post is one in a series on the History of Epistemological Thought . Previously in this series: The Worldview of the Theologos As I discussed previously , Aristotle distinguished between thinkers who were theologi and thinkers who were physiologi. I discussed the former in my previous post, and now...
The action-axiom is the basis of all praxeology, and it is the basic proposition that all specimens of the species homo sapiens, the homo agens, purposefully utilize means over a period of time in order to achieved desired ends. In Human Action , Mises defined “action” in the sense of the...
This post is one in a series on the History of Epistemological Thought . Previously in this series: The Epistemology of Divine Poetry . Even though Hesiod pleads "for the Muses told me so" as his chief intellectual justification, a careful reader can glean attempts at non-divine inference in...