I find Aristotle to be a very fascinating thinker, especially because a lot of his ideas are quite alien to my mostly post enlightenment education. However I find there is a real resonance with many of his points. His blunt statement that not everyone can even potentially achieve eudonamia strikes my modern sentiments as decidedly distasteful. But even a cursory examination of the state of the world shows that everyone is not dealt an equal hand. For all we want to value individual autonomy and self actualization no matter how someone born into abject poverty with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa lives their life it will be drastically different from mine.
As much as many great thinkers wished to build their philosophies on rationality and logic, and I hear their siren song, its undeniable that our humanity requires more than that. How many times have you thought "I'll regret this tomorrow but here I go"? Even beyond emotion Psychology clearly demonstrates we act on many different levels at the same time. Just like Pavlov's dogs we are conditioned by our experiences. And reflex will often take over before we are even aware there is something to do. I've caught a dropped object before realizing I dropped it often enough that it doesn't surprise me. And I've been unable to stop myself from acting on reflex and catching the blade of a knife when I dropped it.
To say we forge our own destinies out of determination and rational thought requires us to forget much of our experience, and Aristotle.
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