Essay about In Search of Virtue in Honors - 1668 Words

In Search of Virtue in Honors Of the three forms of friendship discussed by Aristotle—the useful, the pleasant, and the good—the ideal seminar most resembles the perfectly good friendship between â€Å"good men who are alike in excellence or virtue† (Aristotle 1156b). A seminar, the Swarthmore website reads, unites faculty with â€Å"small groups of dedicated and accomplished students† committed to â€Å"independent learning† and â€Å"dialogue with peers, teachers, and examiners.† In light of Aristotelian and neo-Aristotelian thought on friendship, virtue and practical wisdom, this discussion will first examine how an ideal seminar promotes student virtues and then proceed to evaluate an e-mail I wrote in response to an imperfect seminar. Aristotle†¦show more content†¦The use of role models allows moral agents to â€Å"see the good as good and to see what is the good in a particular situation† (309). At Swarthmore, the honors program makes implicit use of role models. In seminar, seniors initially set the tone for juniors to follow. Honors seminars also provide a forum for â€Å"moral self-examination† (Thomas 140) which encourages deliberation among equals. Seminars allow a degree of academic intimacy and debate which is unavailable in a lecture hall. In Living Morally, Laurence Thomas writes that â€Å"Not infrequently†¦self-examination requires a dialogue† (140). In the Ethics, Aristotle highlights the importance of deliberation in proceeding with practical wisdom: â€Å"When great issues are at stake, we distrust our own abilities as insufficient to decide the matter and call in others to join us in our deliberation† (Aristotle 1112b). Successful deliberation, then, often requires the union of various perspectives. In my experience, the wisdom of groups of people outpaces the ability of an individual. Dialogue and deliberation are constitutive of the honors program at Swarthmore. The program description reads. What makes the Honors Program special? What defines it? The answers to these questions will depend upon the individual, the discipline, the idea of learning--but the answer we hear most often is that the Honors Program is builtShow MoreRelatedGerman Medieval Literature: Hildebrandslied1025 Words   |  4 Pagesliterature: â€Å"Hildebranslied,† â€Å"Nibelungenlied† and Tristan courtly virtues of muot, à ªre, and triuwe are present and have importance within the context which either make a situation acceptable or not. These virtues make characters within each text either admirable or looked down upon. It also makes meaning of the text complex rather than one-sided. Although all virtues are present and emphasized, equal value is not given to the virtues in all texts except for à ªre. 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