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All right, thank you so much for that kind

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introduction, Dr. Kennyi already mentioned, uh,

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that. Title of my talk is We Come to play school

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and Aristotelian defensive, athletic and academic.

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Excellence. Now, very briefly, before we get into

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the topic at hand, I just wanted to give you a

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visual learners out there, a little bit of part

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about me building on what Dr. Kenny mentioned. I

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got my master's at Michigan, my Ph.D. at Penn

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State. The ethics textbook he mentioned is cover

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is there up on the left. And then I am actively an

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athlete still today. And I did play college soccer

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at the NCAA level, you see. Sure. Of me there back

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when I was young and still had hair. And then on

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the top. Right. One of the teams I coached last

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fall.

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But turning specifically to the topic of. The

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lecture.

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I want to talk about Cardale Jones as a condensed

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symbol. What is the condensed symbol, cadenced

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symbol as a paradigm example, which means an

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example that encapsulates and thereby stands in

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for a larger problem. So I think he's a key

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instance of an all too prevalent attitude among

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college students. Well, what's the problem? The

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problem is a commitment to only one type of

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excellence that is on the field excellence. So

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that's where the title of this lecture comes from.

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We ain't come to play school. It comes from

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Cardale Jones is tweet. From almost 10 years ago

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now when he was the quarterback at. Ohio State,

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where he said this, Why should we have to go to

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class if we came here to play football? We ain't

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come to play school. Classes are pointless.

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So is that the typical attitude, I would say,

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again, all too often it is so it's not necessarily

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that all students or all student athletes are

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openly hostile to academic endeavor, but there is

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widespread indifference. In other words, athletic

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excellence is treated with the utmost seriousness,

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but then on the flip side, you think about

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classroom excellence and it's like the emoji

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they're most students is whatever, you know, hey,

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I'm eligible coach. I'm eligible mom and dad. I

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got my gentlemens two point five. What more could

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you want?

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Now, one way to think about this issue is to start

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with ancient Greek athletics, which, of course, is

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a culture in which Aristotle was writing. And

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ancient Greek athletics offers some very

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interesting parallels that in some ways modern

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this mirror of this modern attitude. So, for

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example, the Greeks, their games had literal

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religious importance. All the great Greek

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festivals were dedicated to gods. The Olympics,

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most famously, are dedicated to zoos. The Temple

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of Zoos was actually at Olympio, one of the

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ancient wonders of the world and so forth. So they

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took it very seriously. In fact, a Greek Olympic

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winner in some circumstances would achieve

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essentially demigod status. Related to that, the

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Greeks were intensely interested in winning. There

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were no moral victories. There were no silver

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medals. There was no hey, good job. That's a

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personal record. I'm proud of you. Either you won

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or you were a loser.

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Third, they were only interested in individual

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sports because individual sports eliminated

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ambiguity as to who won and why they wanted Peyton

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Manning or Tom Brady throws drops a dime in the

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end zone in somebody's hands and they fumble it

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out of their hands and dropped a touchdown pass.

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Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers, whoever

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it is, loses. But to what degree was that his

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fault? We would have good questions to say. Well,

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a large degree it wasn't his fault. So team games

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get in the way of analyzing whether or not

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individual excellence was actually demonstrated.

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If you're in a race with eight other guys and you

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run and you don't finish first, it's clear you

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weren't the best. They also competed naked, did

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lots of explanations and theories for why they did

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that, some of it I think, is just range of motion.

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And they didn't have spandex. They didn't have the

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modern equipment that we have. And if you're

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serious, you want to move freely and move well.

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But another important thing was a social leveling

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mechanism. It didn't matter whether you're rich or

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poor, didn't matter what family you came from,

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didn't matter what your occupation was, it

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mattered whether you were the fastest, whether you

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could jump the farthest and so forth. And when you

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stripped everybody down to naked, then that level,

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that social reality to we're here not because

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you're rich or poor. What we're here to see is

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who's the best. Your social status didn't matter.

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Very quickly, the book here, ancient Greek

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athletics, Steven Miller, very accessible to

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undergraduates. A very interesting read. If you

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have interest in any of the things I've briefly

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discussed there, I would recommend any. But he's

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interested. Get it. Take forty dollars so it's not

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even that expensive.

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So why was victory so important to the Greeks?

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Well, the Greek term for victory was Arrietty.

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Another translation of that would be excellence.

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So the athletic victory demonstrated unambiguously

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because of these concerns. We are only interested

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in the winner only in regional sports and so forth.

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Athletic victory unambiguously demonstrated

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Oriente excellence. But authority doesn't just

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apply to sport, and winning and demonstrating

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excellence via winning and excellence isn't the

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only translation of the term. So it can also be

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translated as virtue. In fact, people that are

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interested in virtue ethics, which I'll talk about

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here just in a moment, sometimes call it automatic

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ethics for that very reason. What is virtue?

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Virtue is a good or excellent character trait. So

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if we're thinking about moral traits, for example,

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that are good, we would go most famously to the

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cardinal virtues, prudence, justice, courage and

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moderation. But obviously, those aren't the only

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virtues. And moral virtues aren't the only virtues

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either.

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That leads us to Aristotle, Aristotle was an

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ancient Greek philosopher from the 4th century

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B.C. He was the student of Plato. So Plato was his

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teacher and he was inturn teacher Alexander the

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Great. Alexander the Great was not a scholar in

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the sense that we think of Plato and Aristotle,

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but he obviously was a world historical character

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and so forth. And according to reports and stories,

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he was even more convinced by Aristotle to send

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back samples and specimens that he found along the

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way into his conquering meditated Darwinian world

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in the Middle East. But anyway, Aristotle, great

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important thinker in the Western tradition and for

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our purposes, the father of virtue ethics. So what

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is virtue? Ethics, virtue? Ethics is the school of

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thought that says the two great questions of

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ethics can be answered by focusing on good

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character. Good character is what demonstrates or

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allows to demonstrate right action in the world.

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What then are the two great questions of ethics,

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the primarily these two? What is a good life and

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how should we treat each other?

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I can imagine a student might be sitting in their

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seat or in their dorm watching this lecture and

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saying, OK, that's nice, but let's get back to

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your original premise. I don't care about school.

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This Aristotelian stuff that's putting me to sleep.

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Why do these questions matter to me? I'm only here

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for the extra credit. So let me try and defend why

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these two questions are of inherent interest to

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you and the extra credit is just a bonus, just

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icing on the cake on the good life question, what

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is a good life? Why does that question matter to

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you here and now as an 18 to 22 year old? Because

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you only get to lead your life once and all of the

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older people in the room will tell you it goes by

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quickly and there's no rewind and there's no do

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overs. And if you make a mistake and waste a year,

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you waste time or you ruin a relationship, you

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don't get it back. So your time is limited and any

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serious person is going to deliberate on how it

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ought to be spent, but if you're going to

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deliberate on that, seriously, you have to ask

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this question seriously. What is a good life and

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my using my time well and so forth. Another way to

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put that in more colloquial terms would be to ask

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this question, what counts as success? Right. If

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you listen to sports, black radio and ESPN, if you

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watch commercials, the pop culture answer, of

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course, is very shallow, essentially says fame,

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winning power, money, pleasure. Those are what

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kind of success? That's a pretty thin answer and

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the experience of people that pursue those things

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and testify unanimously that once they got those

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things, they thought they'd be happy. And once

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they got those things, they're not because you

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make those things bad. But a good life is more

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than material success. What about treating each

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other? How should we treat each other? Why is that

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an important question? Well, because human beings

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are, as Aristotle puts it, in a different text

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than politics, political animals. Now, we live in

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a politically partisan, contentious age. Some

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people don't bring politics into it. Well, what

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what Aristotle means is politics in the generic

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philosophical sense. And politics actually comes

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from the Greek word for city or city state policy.

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So what Aristotle means when he says that is that

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not that we should be partisans in the sense we

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think of politics in everyday language, but that

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we're all born into communities. Human beings are

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political animals because they're social. They

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need each other and they're political animals,

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unlike, say, wolves that are also social because

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human beings have the gift of reason and can

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deliberate how we should organize our communities,

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how we should organize our teams, how we should

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organize our leagues. Here's a relatively trivial

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example to prove the point. Major League Baseball

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for the last two years has had two novel rules,

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one, doubleheaders or seven innings, and two, if

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it goes extra innings, the runners automatically

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start at second base. Is that good? Is that bad?

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Does that make baseball better? Does it cheapen

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the game? Does it ruin the game and so forth?

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That's a political question in the sense that

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Aristotle is talking about. Now, could we get

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deeper and more important questions? Of course.

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But his point is human beings are born into

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communities and they debate and deliberate how

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those communities ought to be best organized. And

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that includes our families, our teams, our

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societies.

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So another way to put that is human beings need

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each other. If this political animal, if this

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social argument is correct, then there's some

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important insights related to what we learn and

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how we learn and what we know and how we know. So

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think about this, your favorite sport. I am a

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soccer player. I am a football player. I'm a

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swimmer. You didn't teach yourself to play. You

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didn't create the pool yourself. You didn't create

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the game or the rules. It was inheritance and

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tradition and mentorship that made you what you

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are. Does free will and choice play a role? Of

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course, but within a community, within

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relationships and so forth. But if that's right,

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then how you were treated and how you treat others

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matters to them because they're invested in these

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relationships, too, which means you can't escape

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if you're a serious person. This question as an

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ongoing reality, as you lead your life, how should

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we treat each other? What obligations do others

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have to me? What obligations do I have to them?

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For visual learners are just some examples, when

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and how should we stop and help a fallen runner?

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Do we have an obligation to help our competitors

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in certain circumstances and forgo victory?

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Because if you stop and help, one thing's clear,

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you're not going to win or the Houston Astros with

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that phone logo there and their cheating scandal,

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stealing signs and so forth, what what should we

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think of cheating? What should we think of

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forgiveness? What should we think of repentance to

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use a theological or religious term? And I don't

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mean it needs to be theological or religious, but.

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Were the Astros sufficiently contrite that they

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deserve forgiveness? What should we think of

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punishment, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera?

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Bottom left American football, to what degree

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might the game become a moral if the evidence we

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have that's increasing that collisions that such

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lead to brain damage becomes determinative? Does

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that mean we shouldn't play anymore? Bottom right,

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there's no prestige, there's no ESPN cameras,

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nobody cares but dad, but might we say that that's

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the most important thing that happens in sport,

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passing on a tradition, passing on love, teaching

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the next generation about this precious gift of

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baseball, soccer, hockey, whatever it is. I don't

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know, we could debate that for the rest of the

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hour. My point is these things should make it

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alive to you or make these questions live to you.

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What is it? Good life. It matters. How should we

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treat each other? It matters.

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So turning back to Aristotle and getting into

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specifically some of his claims in his virtue,

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ethics would be vital. If we're going to think

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about these two questions seriously, at least from

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an Aristotelian perspective. So what is your so

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say? Well, if I wanted to summarize his entire

277
00:13:32.970 --> 00:13:35.160
ethical philosophy in one phrase, which can be a

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00:13:35.160 --> 00:13:39.570
little bit dangerous, but still pedagogically

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useful, I would say this. What Aristotle says is

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we become what we practice. Where does he say this

281
00:13:47.300 --> 00:13:50.150
in the next MacKean ethics and in the Nicole

282
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McCain ethics, primarily in the first two books

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00:13:52.280 --> 00:13:54.860
that I'm going to talk about. He makes several

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points I think we're worth spending a little time

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on. First, he makes a distinction between

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intrinsic and extrinsic goods. Second, he talks

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about how ethics is social and tied to human

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nature. Already alluded to that a little bit. And

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with my analysis of why how we treat each other is

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an important question. Obviously, if it's called

291
00:14:14.750 --> 00:14:16.430
virtue ethics, we spend some time talking about

292
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virtue. So I'll try to unpack that a little more

293
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and talk about how he comes to settle on virtue as

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being so important. He also talks about habit in

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relationship to skill development, primarily on

296
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read anyway. And I'll talk a little bit more about

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00:14:31.430 --> 00:14:34.490
that. And then he also talks about the mean, which

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I'm not going to get into due to time constraints

299
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and any sort of great detail other than to say

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00:14:38.450 --> 00:14:41.990
this when Aristotle tries to identify virtues that

301
00:14:41.990 --> 00:14:43.970
his good character traits, he says they are mean

302
00:14:43.970 --> 00:14:47.900
conditions between two extremes. One extreme is an

303
00:14:47.900 --> 00:14:51.470
excess and overdoing one is the deficiency. So

304
00:14:51.470 --> 00:14:54.950
courage, for example, is not cowardice. Hiding in

305
00:14:54.950 --> 00:14:58.820
the corner because you're afraid is deficient, but

306
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neither is it foolhardy. So most people are pretty

307
00:15:01.700 --> 00:15:03.740
clear that cowardice is the opposite of courage.

308
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But they forget about foolhardiness. Charging up

309
00:15:06.470 --> 00:15:08.300
the hill, so to speak, and getting your head blown

310
00:15:08.300 --> 00:15:12.350
off is just as bad as hiding in the foxhole,

311
00:15:12.350 --> 00:15:16.160
wetting your pants. Courage is the mean condition

312
00:15:16.160 --> 00:15:20.910
between the two. As an example, so on that first

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00:15:20.910 --> 00:15:24.180
point of intrinsic versus extrinsic goods, why is

314
00:15:24.180 --> 00:15:26.400
this important in general and why is it important

315
00:15:26.400 --> 00:15:29.370
to Aristotle in general? It's important because

316
00:15:29.370 --> 00:15:30.900
there are different types of goods in the world.

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So some goods are means to other goods and some

318
00:15:35.010 --> 00:15:37.350
goods are ends in themselves. What does that mean?

319
00:15:37.380 --> 00:15:39.540
It means some goods are useful for something else

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and some goods are just plain good. So Aristotle,

321
00:15:44.130 --> 00:15:46.710
for example, talks about medicine and wealth and

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00:15:46.710 --> 00:15:48.840
he says medicine is good because it leads to

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00:15:48.840 --> 00:15:49.170
health.

324
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A living example that I think students would grasp

325
00:15:55.720 --> 00:15:58.150
on to would be this nobody goes to the dentist for

326
00:15:58.150 --> 00:16:00.400
the sake of the dentist. Nobody says, hurray, it's

327
00:16:00.400 --> 00:16:02.800
been six months. If I'm lucky, I'll have a cavity

328
00:16:02.800 --> 00:16:05.440
and I'll be able to come back. Nevertheless,

329
00:16:05.590 --> 00:16:07.630
people go to the dentist regularly because they

330
00:16:07.630 --> 00:16:10.300
don't want cavities. They want a healthy smile.

331
00:16:10.300 --> 00:16:12.010
They want to be able to bite into an apple without

332
00:16:12.490 --> 00:16:14.740
clutching their cheek or living the rest of their

333
00:16:14.740 --> 00:16:17.020
life in pain from a persistent to a toothache and

334
00:16:17.020 --> 00:16:19.750
so forth. So the dentist is really good, but the

335
00:16:19.750 --> 00:16:21.790
dentist is good because it gets us something else,

336
00:16:21.790 --> 00:16:24.730
health, and that would make it an extrinsic good.

337
00:16:24.730 --> 00:16:27.190
It's not pursued for its own sake. It's pursued

338
00:16:27.190 --> 00:16:29.170
because it leads to a healthy smile and so forth.

339
00:16:30.430 --> 00:16:33.010
Now, interestingly, Aristotle says wealth is an

340
00:16:33.010 --> 00:16:35.080
extrinsic good. And this is surprising to a lot of

341
00:16:35.080 --> 00:16:37.840
people because in his day in and hours, a lot of

342
00:16:37.840 --> 00:16:40.750
people are enraptured with money, money, money. He

343
00:16:40.750 --> 00:16:43.390
says money is good. It allows for a lot of things,

344
00:16:43.390 --> 00:16:45.940
but it's not inherently good. It's merely a tool

345
00:16:46.270 --> 00:16:49.390
for other goods. So if you wanted to summarize his

346
00:16:49.390 --> 00:16:51.220
position, it would be something like this. Money

347
00:16:51.220 --> 00:16:53.500
is supposed to be for life. It serves human beings.

348
00:16:54.070 --> 00:16:55.960
We're not supposed to reduce our lives to the

349
00:16:55.960 --> 00:17:00.100
endless pursuit of money. He then says towards the

350
00:17:00.400 --> 00:17:03.250
end of a book when something very interesting, he

351
00:17:03.250 --> 00:17:06.790
says ultimately pretty much everything is an

352
00:17:06.790 --> 00:17:09.370
extrinsic good. Everything's an exchange of good.

353
00:17:09.640 --> 00:17:12.280
How Aristotle, he says, well, because happiness is

354
00:17:12.280 --> 00:17:15.490
that good at which all other goods and we pursue

355
00:17:15.490 --> 00:17:18.340
this, we pursue this, we pursue this and so forth.

356
00:17:18.340 --> 00:17:20.410
But ultimately all of them are aimed at we want to

357
00:17:20.410 --> 00:17:24.970
be happy. Now, critics might say and the students

358
00:17:24.970 --> 00:17:27.310
might be thinking this as they're listening along.

359
00:17:27.550 --> 00:17:30.100
Oh, well, this is why we have this enduring text

360
00:17:30.100 --> 00:17:31.930
from twenty five hundred years ago, because he

361
00:17:31.930 --> 00:17:34.810
said people want to be happy. Give me a break. I'm

362
00:17:34.810 --> 00:17:37.390
going to tune out yet again. Did I mention I'm

363
00:17:37.390 --> 00:17:41.030
only here for the extra credit? Well, Aristotle

364
00:17:41.030 --> 00:17:43.710
anticipates that he doesn't say happiness, is it?

365
00:17:43.730 --> 00:17:46.490
Is that good at all? Which all other goods aim and

366
00:17:46.490 --> 00:17:49.630
then period, end of sentence, close the book. It's

367
00:17:49.640 --> 00:17:52.130
a starting point. And he knows the follow up

368
00:17:52.130 --> 00:17:55.520
question is obvious. OK, big deal. What is

369
00:17:55.520 --> 00:17:58.400
happiness? That's the real question. And he says

370
00:17:58.400 --> 00:18:00.980
there's three common definition CFT. Sound

371
00:18:00.980 --> 00:18:03.080
familiar to you? Because he said this twenty five

372
00:18:03.080 --> 00:18:06.780
hundred years ago. He says a lot of people think

373
00:18:06.780 --> 00:18:10.310
pleasure is the root of happiness. Some other

374
00:18:10.310 --> 00:18:12.650
people think it's an honor and then a few people

375
00:18:12.650 --> 00:18:16.370
think it's contemplation. It's not surprising and

376
00:18:16.370 --> 00:18:18.170
you can probably anticipate this, that a

377
00:18:18.170 --> 00:18:22.160
philosopher says the good life, the happy life is

378
00:18:22.160 --> 00:18:27.050
the life of contemplation. So maybe he's not being

379
00:18:27.050 --> 00:18:28.880
fair to the other two. Does he have any good

380
00:18:28.880 --> 00:18:33.080
reasons to reject them other than his bias? I

381
00:18:33.080 --> 00:18:35.000
think he does have good reasons. The first one of

382
00:18:35.000 --> 00:18:39.470
pleasure is mistaken because hedonism twenty five

383
00:18:39.470 --> 00:18:41.240
hundred years ago and hedonism today has been

384
00:18:41.240 --> 00:18:43.400
tried and found wanting and tried and found

385
00:18:43.400 --> 00:18:45.440
wanting and tried and found wanting people that

386
00:18:45.440 --> 00:18:48.230
lived the sex, drugs and rock and roll lifestyle

387
00:18:48.230 --> 00:18:51.890
for Mick Jagger, Deon Sanders to Andre Agassi on

388
00:18:51.890 --> 00:18:55.280
and on and on it goes. They universally say, I was

389
00:18:55.280 --> 00:18:59.170
miserable. Doesn't work. You just want a basic

390
00:18:59.170 --> 00:19:01.420
metaphor for the problem for your party all night

391
00:19:01.420 --> 00:19:03.190
tonight, on Friday night, you wake up tomorrow

392
00:19:03.190 --> 00:19:05.350
with a headache and it's eventually going to hurt

393
00:19:05.350 --> 00:19:08.020
your grades, lead to addiction, ruin relationships

394
00:19:08.020 --> 00:19:12.810
and so forth. So he dismisses hedonistic life, and

395
00:19:12.810 --> 00:19:15.270
I think rightly so. But what about honor? What's

396
00:19:15.270 --> 00:19:17.190
wrong with an honorable life? Isn't that just as

397
00:19:17.190 --> 00:19:19.350
good as contemplation? Don't we want active people

398
00:19:19.890 --> 00:19:23.070
just as much as we want contemplative people? Well,

399
00:19:23.070 --> 00:19:25.170
here's the limitation in Aristotle's mind. And I

400
00:19:25.170 --> 00:19:27.030
think personally speaking, for myself, it's

401
00:19:27.030 --> 00:19:28.950
decisive. He says there's nothing wrong with honor,

402
00:19:28.950 --> 00:19:31.890
Persay, but honor is always dependent upon other

403
00:19:31.890 --> 00:19:34.780
people. Which means we might be honored for the

404
00:19:34.780 --> 00:19:37.750
wrong things or we might receive scorn for doing

405
00:19:37.750 --> 00:19:41.140
the right thing. But doing the right thing is what

406
00:19:41.140 --> 00:19:44.110
we ought to do, whether or not it's popular.

407
00:19:45.150 --> 00:19:47.250
Therefore, he says, ultimately, the contemplative

408
00:19:47.250 --> 00:19:51.180
life is the path to happiness. Now he needs a

409
00:19:51.180 --> 00:19:53.580
positive argument for that above and beyond, just

410
00:19:53.580 --> 00:19:55.620
rejecting the other two possibilities, or at least

411
00:19:55.620 --> 00:19:58.230
on his account of three possibilities. So what is

412
00:19:58.230 --> 00:20:00.270
his positive account for contemplation? He says

413
00:20:00.270 --> 00:20:03.510
happiness is contemplation because happiness is to

414
00:20:03.510 --> 00:20:06.930
live in accord with our nature. Now, I mentioned

415
00:20:06.930 --> 00:20:09.840
before that Aristotle says human beings are

416
00:20:09.840 --> 00:20:12.030
political animals and the politics very famous

417
00:20:12.030 --> 00:20:14.430
quote, probably the most famous quote of that book.

418
00:20:14.440 --> 00:20:15.960
People that have never read it, but took a good

419
00:20:15.960 --> 00:20:18.600
Western civ class would be able to identify it as

420
00:20:18.600 --> 00:20:21.680
Aristotle. But he also says in the economy and

421
00:20:21.690 --> 00:20:26.860
ethics, that man is by nature rational animal. So.

422
00:20:28.980 --> 00:20:31.490
We're not just social. We're not just political,

423
00:20:31.500 --> 00:20:35.460
we're also rational. So the social and natural

424
00:20:35.460 --> 00:20:37.500
point is important to understand Aristotle,

425
00:20:37.500 --> 00:20:40.710
because again, we are born into communities, which

426
00:20:40.710 --> 00:20:43.020
means ethics is never merely personal. We tend to

427
00:20:43.020 --> 00:20:44.880
get sucked into that in our individualistic,

428
00:20:44.880 --> 00:20:46.920
modern culture where ethics is about me and my

429
00:20:46.920 --> 00:20:49.230
action and whether or not I'm a good person. But

430
00:20:49.230 --> 00:20:51.630
Aristotle says those questions are important. But

431
00:20:51.630 --> 00:20:53.850
you're nested in a community. Your actions affect

432
00:20:54.000 --> 00:20:57.240
other people. There's this political aspect and

433
00:20:57.240 --> 00:20:59.760
again, in the philosophic sense to ethical action,

434
00:20:59.760 --> 00:21:01.740
because it's about how we order our lives together,

435
00:21:01.740 --> 00:21:03.930
how our behavior affects other people, not just

436
00:21:03.930 --> 00:21:07.800
how it affects us. Now, why and how does he say

437
00:21:08.220 --> 00:21:11.850
reason is the path to happiness? Well, he makes a

438
00:21:11.850 --> 00:21:14.340
metaphysical claim about what human beings are,

439
00:21:14.760 --> 00:21:16.920
and metaphysics just means the study of the nature

440
00:21:16.920 --> 00:21:18.660
of things. So he's making a claim about human

441
00:21:18.660 --> 00:21:21.240
nature. He says the function of the eyes to see

442
00:21:21.300 --> 00:21:23.630
what then is the function of man or human beings.

443
00:21:24.330 --> 00:21:26.400
Well, somebody might say the function of human

444
00:21:26.400 --> 00:21:28.200
beings to be alive. He says that can't be right.

445
00:21:28.200 --> 00:21:31.020
That's too broad. Lots of things are alive besides

446
00:21:31.020 --> 00:21:33.240
human beings, plants, animals, so forth. All right.

447
00:21:33.240 --> 00:21:34.590
Well, then the function of the human being a

448
00:21:34.600 --> 00:21:37.560
sensation using our senses is that I can't be

449
00:21:37.560 --> 00:21:40.290
right. All animals share sensation. Is there

450
00:21:40.290 --> 00:21:42.810
anything uniquely human? According to Aristotle's

451
00:21:42.810 --> 00:21:45.210
account, what's uniquely human is reason. The

452
00:21:45.210 --> 00:21:47.850
intellect is uniquely human. Therefore, if we're

453
00:21:47.850 --> 00:21:51.600
going to be what we ought to be and be happy, we

454
00:21:51.600 --> 00:21:53.940
have to exercise that gift. We have to exercise

455
00:21:53.940 --> 00:21:57.120
that nature. Now, the interesting thing here

456
00:21:57.120 --> 00:22:00.840
between this metaphysical claim and ethics is this.

457
00:22:01.890 --> 00:22:05.190
He's making a claim about the nature of thing and

458
00:22:05.190 --> 00:22:07.320
the goodness of a thing, and this applies to

459
00:22:07.320 --> 00:22:10.110
ethics. So if you think, for example, about a

460
00:22:10.110 --> 00:22:13.470
knife, how do we know what a good knife is? A good

461
00:22:13.470 --> 00:22:16.050
knife has to be sharp. Follow up question. Why?

462
00:22:16.050 --> 00:22:18.450
Because a knife is meant for cutting. So when

463
00:22:18.450 --> 00:22:21.360
Aristotle saying here is the same thing, we know a

464
00:22:21.360 --> 00:22:24.060
good knife because we know what a knife is to be a

465
00:22:24.060 --> 00:22:26.640
good knife is to be sharp because knives are meant

466
00:22:26.640 --> 00:22:29.640
to cut. To be a good human is to be rational and

467
00:22:29.640 --> 00:22:32.490
reasonable and exercise that capacity because

468
00:22:32.490 --> 00:22:34.620
that's what a human being is, a rational animal.

469
00:22:39.020 --> 00:22:41.540
So if we're going to exercise our reason, well,

470
00:22:41.540 --> 00:22:43.730
we've got to cultivate those skills and that is

471
00:22:43.730 --> 00:22:46.220
where virtue and habit comes in, we have to learn

472
00:22:46.220 --> 00:22:48.500
to embody those excellences that are naturally

473
00:22:48.500 --> 00:22:51.300
human. So Aristotle famously puts it this way. And

474
00:22:51.800 --> 00:22:54.680
ethics is neither by nature nor in defiance of

475
00:22:54.680 --> 00:22:57.410
nature. That virtue grows in us. Nature gives us

476
00:22:57.410 --> 00:23:00.950
the capacity to receive them the virtues and that

477
00:23:00.950 --> 00:23:04.520
capacity is perfected by habit. So we become

478
00:23:04.520 --> 00:23:07.160
virtuous not merely by understanding the good, but

479
00:23:07.160 --> 00:23:09.830
by practicing it and then becoming what we

480
00:23:09.830 --> 00:23:13.470
practice. So it's a process of maturation or

481
00:23:13.470 --> 00:23:16.590
growth, whether you're on the ball field or in the

482
00:23:16.590 --> 00:23:20.650
classroom. And this leads to a recognition of the

483
00:23:20.650 --> 00:23:22.870
goodness of inaction, because you embody it and

484
00:23:22.870 --> 00:23:24.910
you can see it in a way you couldn't when it was

485
00:23:24.910 --> 00:23:27.550
purely theoretical, in other words, is not merely

486
00:23:27.550 --> 00:23:31.360
passive, but the activity of active cultivation of

487
00:23:31.360 --> 00:23:34.810
a particular virtue, humility, kindness, justice,

488
00:23:34.810 --> 00:23:39.010
courage, what have you, and a way that this really

489
00:23:39.010 --> 00:23:41.380
aligns well with athletics, if you think about it,

490
00:23:41.380 --> 00:23:43.240
to try and understand what Aristotle saying is

491
00:23:43.240 --> 00:23:46.390
this just as we can be in shape or out of shape

492
00:23:46.390 --> 00:23:49.540
physically, we can be in shape or out of shape

493
00:23:49.540 --> 00:23:53.320
morally. And whether or not we're in shape matters

494
00:23:53.320 --> 00:23:55.300
in the last 10 minutes of a soccer game when your

495
00:23:55.300 --> 00:23:58.060
heart feels like it's about to explode and whether

496
00:23:58.060 --> 00:24:01.630
or not we're in shape morally matters when we're

497
00:24:01.630 --> 00:24:03.640
called on to be courageous and we're afraid.

498
00:24:08.220 --> 00:24:11.520
Again, to summarize, Aristotle, I think really

499
00:24:12.390 --> 00:24:15.240
it's dangerous to ever summarize any deep thinker

500
00:24:15.240 --> 00:24:17.130
in one phrase, but I think this is as close as you

501
00:24:17.130 --> 00:24:19.350
can get. And it's a good guiding principle to keep

502
00:24:19.350 --> 00:24:22.890
clear in your mind what he's after. We become we

503
00:24:22.900 --> 00:24:25.500
become what we practice. So let's stick with an

504
00:24:25.500 --> 00:24:27.390
athletic metaphor again to try and see how this

505
00:24:27.390 --> 00:24:30.210
applies and what he's after. You want to be a good

506
00:24:30.210 --> 00:24:32.490
soccer player, and that soccer player is a

507
00:24:32.490 --> 00:24:34.290
placeholder term because I'm a soccer player,

508
00:24:34.290 --> 00:24:36.990
swimmer or anything else with a violin player,

509
00:24:36.990 --> 00:24:39.060
which would fit as well. And as far as I'm

510
00:24:39.210 --> 00:24:42.140
alluding to, being a good person would fit as well.

511
00:24:42.370 --> 00:24:43.650
Well, you want to be good soccer player. You don't

512
00:24:43.650 --> 00:24:46.050
sit down and read a theory of soccer and say, aha,

513
00:24:46.200 --> 00:24:49.140
I read a theory of soccer. I am now a soccer

514
00:24:49.140 --> 00:24:51.180
player. No, to be a soccer player, you have to

515
00:24:51.180 --> 00:24:54.840
practice and eventually through repetition and

516
00:24:54.840 --> 00:24:58.080
correction and so forth, you become a soccer

517
00:24:58.080 --> 00:25:00.270
player. That is, you embody the skills of soccer

518
00:25:00.780 --> 00:25:02.910
theory is not bad, but it doesn't take you very,

519
00:25:03.180 --> 00:25:06.030
very far. So similar with ethics. If you want to

520
00:25:06.030 --> 00:25:08.640
be honest, work on telling the truth. You want to

521
00:25:08.640 --> 00:25:11.520
be courageous. Work on suffering for the truth.

522
00:25:12.850 --> 00:25:15.850
And here's the scary part, because we become what

523
00:25:15.850 --> 00:25:18.370
we practice and because you can be in shape or out

524
00:25:18.370 --> 00:25:20.830
of shape physically and morally, it's exactly the

525
00:25:20.830 --> 00:25:24.800
same thing with Vice. Tell the first lie and it's

526
00:25:24.800 --> 00:25:26.540
painful, I can't believe I lied to my parents, I

527
00:25:26.540 --> 00:25:28.910
told myself I would never lie to my parents, but I

528
00:25:28.910 --> 00:25:31.970
just did. Hey, but the sun came up tomorrow. Oh,

529
00:25:32.150 --> 00:25:35.670
my grades just came in. I better lie to my parents

530
00:25:35.670 --> 00:25:38.610
again. I didn't like it, but, you know, the

531
00:25:38.610 --> 00:25:41.130
world's got to move on. And I was in a pressure

532
00:25:41.130 --> 00:25:44.130
situation. And then you tell another lie and

533
00:25:44.130 --> 00:25:46.560
another lie and then one horrible day you wake up

534
00:25:46.560 --> 00:25:48.840
after the five fly, the thousand fly or whatever,

535
00:25:48.840 --> 00:25:51.990
and you look in the mirror and you see, I am a

536
00:25:51.990 --> 00:25:56.480
liar. The. What a terrible day. Now, the good news

537
00:25:56.480 --> 00:25:59.360
is with hard work, just like this guy getting rid

538
00:25:59.360 --> 00:26:02.840
of his beer gut, you can turn back towards virtue

539
00:26:03.320 --> 00:26:05.420
and honesty. But it's going to be hard work, just

540
00:26:05.420 --> 00:26:07.310
like it would be to lose those 30 pounds.

541
00:26:10.560 --> 00:26:13.170
So the basic point is this, so, too, this is

542
00:26:13.170 --> 00:26:15.510
Aristotle again from the Committee on Ethics. We

543
00:26:15.510 --> 00:26:18.060
become just by doing things that are just

544
00:26:18.060 --> 00:26:20.010
temperate or moderate, by doing things that are

545
00:26:20.010 --> 00:26:22.230
temperate and courageous, by doing things that are

546
00:26:22.230 --> 00:26:25.290
courageous. In other words, how we live, the

547
00:26:25.290 --> 00:26:28.380
skills, virtues or vices that we develop directly

548
00:26:28.380 --> 00:26:29.250
impact who we are.

549
00:26:34.330 --> 00:26:36.580
OK, now I can see the skeptical student again

550
00:26:36.580 --> 00:26:40.060
saying, oh, all right, I guess I see your point.

551
00:26:40.840 --> 00:26:42.760
Excellence matters. There's many types of

552
00:26:42.760 --> 00:26:45.460
excellence. OK, but what does this have to do with

553
00:26:45.460 --> 00:26:49.900
me? We can't be all things I care about sport. I

554
00:26:49.900 --> 00:26:52.510
love sport. It's an intrinsic good for me. See, I

555
00:26:52.510 --> 00:26:54.160
was paying attention. I listen to what you said.

556
00:26:55.000 --> 00:26:58.300
But I don't care about school, I don't care about

557
00:26:58.300 --> 00:27:01.120
academics, it allows me to be on the field. So I

558
00:27:01.120 --> 00:27:03.070
go to class and do what I need to do to get the

559
00:27:03.070 --> 00:27:05.620
rubber stamp that says I can play. But it's an

560
00:27:05.710 --> 00:27:07.540
extrinsic good. It's only valuable for what it

561
00:27:07.540 --> 00:27:10.990
bureaucratically procures and a diploma,

562
00:27:10.990 --> 00:27:14.140
eligibility, a job, etc. Education for its own

563
00:27:14.140 --> 00:27:19.250
sake, has an intrinsic good. Give me a break. Well,

564
00:27:19.250 --> 00:27:22.850
how might somebody respond to such skepticism, I

565
00:27:22.850 --> 00:27:26.090
would give it essentially for answers, for a

566
00:27:26.090 --> 00:27:29.060
squandered opportunity. Second, I would return to

567
00:27:29.060 --> 00:27:31.280
Aristotle's point about human nature and expound

568
00:27:31.280 --> 00:27:33.050
on that a little bit. Third, I would talk about

569
00:27:33.050 --> 00:27:35.900
avoiding the tyranny of the moment. And fourth, I

570
00:27:35.900 --> 00:27:38.750
would say education increases your odds for good

571
00:27:38.750 --> 00:27:41.240
life. So very quickly, about four. And then I'll

572
00:27:41.240 --> 00:27:43.730
go into detail about each. Just think about

573
00:27:43.730 --> 00:27:45.410
squandered opportunity for a moment. Most

574
00:27:45.410 --> 00:27:47.540
Americans even today, don't graduate from college.

575
00:27:48.950 --> 00:27:51.010
You're in college, that's an amazing opportunity.

576
00:27:52.140 --> 00:27:55.200
And historically, most human beings never had the

577
00:27:55.200 --> 00:27:57.360
opportunities you have right at your fingertips.

578
00:27:58.930 --> 00:28:01.150
Second, human nature you need, if Aristotle is

579
00:28:01.150 --> 00:28:03.640
right, contemplation to lead a fully human life,

580
00:28:04.150 --> 00:28:07.060
but contemplation requires community, it requires

581
00:28:07.060 --> 00:28:09.160
skill development, just like you need coaching and

582
00:28:09.160 --> 00:28:11.920
football, you need coaching in English and

583
00:28:11.920 --> 00:28:13.900
philosophy in science.

584
00:28:16.350 --> 00:28:18.060
It's not an individual activity.

585
00:28:20.290 --> 00:28:22.700
The tyranny of the moment, avoiding the tyranny of

586
00:28:22.720 --> 00:28:24.940
moment education allows you to be well read, as

587
00:28:24.940 --> 00:28:27.880
they say, to have a larger perspective, to realize

588
00:28:27.880 --> 00:28:30.280
things don't have to be the way they are for good

589
00:28:30.280 --> 00:28:32.920
or for ill. Things can change because they've been

590
00:28:32.920 --> 00:28:34.390
different in the past, because different

591
00:28:34.390 --> 00:28:37.270
philosophies exist, because different, plausible,

592
00:28:37.270 --> 00:28:40.450
intelligent answers have been offered and so forth.

593
00:28:40.450 --> 00:28:41.980
If you're ignorant of all that, well, then you're

594
00:28:41.980 --> 00:28:43.570
stuck with the tyranny of the moment. Here's what

595
00:28:43.570 --> 00:28:47.030
everybody says is true. Well, it must be true. And

596
00:28:47.030 --> 00:28:48.740
then last, increased jobs for good life, knowing

597
00:28:48.740 --> 00:28:51.560
your options obviously doesn't guarantee you will

598
00:28:51.680 --> 00:28:53.630
live well, but I think it gives you a fighting

599
00:28:53.630 --> 00:28:54.080
chance.

600
00:28:56.110 --> 00:28:58.230
A little bit more on each, as I said, squandered

601
00:28:58.240 --> 00:29:01.210
opportunity, education should be understood as a

602
00:29:01.210 --> 00:29:04.030
privilege, not a burden. Even today, only thirty

603
00:29:04.030 --> 00:29:05.890
two percent of American adults have a bachelor's

604
00:29:05.890 --> 00:29:08.260
degree, which, of course, means two thirds don't.

605
00:29:09.240 --> 00:29:11.870
You're in college, don't squander the opportunity,

606
00:29:12.420 --> 00:29:15.480
go back slightly beyond living memory, I know when

607
00:29:15.480 --> 00:29:17.940
you're 18 years old and the 1980s seem like

608
00:29:17.940 --> 00:29:20.310
ancient history, that the mid 19th century really

609
00:29:20.310 --> 00:29:22.980
seems like ancient history. But it's not. It's

610
00:29:22.980 --> 00:29:25.470
barely beyond living memory. You go back to the

611
00:29:25.470 --> 00:29:27.780
mid 19th century, one percent of Americans had a

612
00:29:27.780 --> 00:29:31.660
college degree, almost all of them white men. You

613
00:29:31.660 --> 00:29:35.200
have a precious gift in your hands, don't squander

614
00:29:35.200 --> 00:29:36.940
it, it doesn't mean you can't love football,

615
00:29:37.480 --> 00:29:40.060
doesn't mean you can't love soccer. I am a big

616
00:29:40.060 --> 00:29:43.370
proponent of athletics. But there's a lot more

617
00:29:43.370 --> 00:29:46.580
going on in life than just sport, and when you're

618
00:29:46.580 --> 00:29:48.500
there with those opportunities, your fingerprint

619
00:29:48.710 --> 00:29:50.790
fingertips, it would be a tragedy to squander that.

620
00:29:51.530 --> 00:29:53.750
So another way to make this last point, this point

621
00:29:53.750 --> 00:29:56.810
one last time is generations. Your ancestors had

622
00:29:56.810 --> 00:30:00.330
no access to higher education and you do. Don't

623
00:30:00.330 --> 00:30:01.220
waste the opportunity.

624
00:30:06.930 --> 00:30:08.700
Instead of coming across like a scold, you could

625
00:30:08.700 --> 00:30:10.950
also say it this way. Education opens doors to an

626
00:30:10.950 --> 00:30:12.870
amazing world, and the more you learn, the more

627
00:30:12.870 --> 00:30:14.910
you can appreciate and see and understand that

628
00:30:14.910 --> 00:30:18.300
world from literature to biomechanical analysis to

629
00:30:18.300 --> 00:30:22.290
pitching to amazing art like Monet, to music and

630
00:30:22.740 --> 00:30:26.130
violin playing and musical skill to history. So

631
00:30:26.130 --> 00:30:26.460
that

632
00:30:28.530 --> 00:30:30.960
marble statue, there's actually a Roman copy of an

633
00:30:30.960 --> 00:30:33.540
ancient Greek statue of a female athlete.

634
00:30:35.580 --> 00:30:38.310
Very interesting because anybody that only knows

635
00:30:38.310 --> 00:30:40.740
the surface of ancient Greek sport will say, well,

636
00:30:40.740 --> 00:30:43.050
only the men competed and it competed naked. Well,

637
00:30:43.050 --> 00:30:45.870
no, we have limited but intriguing evidence that

638
00:30:45.870 --> 00:30:48.120
at least sometimes in some places the women did

639
00:30:48.120 --> 00:30:51.000
compete and they were clothed.

640
00:30:55.820 --> 00:30:57.560
Nature, again, as I said, this alludes to

641
00:30:57.560 --> 00:31:00.080
Aristotle were rational animals, were political

642
00:31:00.080 --> 00:31:02.240
animals, rational animals needs we need it means

643
00:31:02.240 --> 00:31:04.340
we need to examine our lives to lead fully human

644
00:31:04.340 --> 00:31:07.810
lives. Education will help you examine your life.

645
00:31:08.300 --> 00:31:10.970
We're political animals, which means we're in a

646
00:31:10.970 --> 00:31:14.150
community. Education is a communal process as

647
00:31:14.150 --> 00:31:16.850
anything else. And your education allows you to be

648
00:31:17.000 --> 00:31:19.010
better at answering those questions. What is a

649
00:31:19.010 --> 00:31:21.680
good life and how should we treat each other and

650
00:31:21.680 --> 00:31:25.220
other obligations? Do I have the community and

651
00:31:25.220 --> 00:31:27.570
what obligations of the community have to be it?

652
00:31:27.610 --> 00:31:29.210
The other thing it cultivates, if you pay

653
00:31:29.210 --> 00:31:31.190
attention, is the virtue of gratitude because you

654
00:31:31.190 --> 00:31:33.560
realize how much was given to you and how you need

655
00:31:33.560 --> 00:31:35.630
to give back to the next generation because you're

656
00:31:35.630 --> 00:31:39.980
only on the stage for a while. Or to reiterate is

657
00:31:40.400 --> 00:31:42.920
my summary of his philosophy in terms of ethics,

658
00:31:42.920 --> 00:31:44.720
we've become what we practiced. Think about it

659
00:31:44.720 --> 00:31:46.870
this way. If you act like a philistine and not

660
00:31:47.480 --> 00:31:52.310
uncultured brute. An uneducated boob. Then you

661
00:31:52.310 --> 00:31:56.400
become a philistine. But with intellectual

662
00:31:56.400 --> 00:31:58.590
development, you cultivate your palate, you

663
00:31:58.590 --> 00:32:00.810
cultivate your sense of taste and discrimination,

664
00:32:00.810 --> 00:32:03.500
right? You go to a wine tasting place as a as a

665
00:32:03.510 --> 00:32:05.610
brute like me and you say it tastes like wine.

666
00:32:06.180 --> 00:32:08.130
Tastes like wine. Yeah, tastes like wine. You

667
00:32:08.130 --> 00:32:09.690
cultivate your palate and you can make

668
00:32:09.690 --> 00:32:11.460
distinctions and say this is a better wine than

669
00:32:11.460 --> 00:32:14.520
that. I taste this subtle flavor and not that and

670
00:32:14.520 --> 00:32:17.070
so forth. And it's just as true in education as

671
00:32:17.070 --> 00:32:18.780
such. In other words, it sharpens your sense of

672
00:32:18.780 --> 00:32:21.210
the good, the true and the beautiful. What's more

673
00:32:21.210 --> 00:32:25.000
important in life than those three things? In

674
00:32:25.000 --> 00:32:27.280
other words, again, to criticize sort of the

675
00:32:27.280 --> 00:32:30.040
dominant hedonistic perspective that we get in

676
00:32:30.280 --> 00:32:32.740
popular culture, there's a lot more to the world.

677
00:32:32.750 --> 00:32:34.630
There's a lot more to life than sex, drugs and

678
00:32:34.630 --> 00:32:35.170
rock and roll

679
00:32:39.160 --> 00:32:41.170
art. Avoiding the to the tyranny of the moment, as

680
00:32:41.170 --> 00:32:43.660
I said, is about realizing that most questions are

681
00:32:43.660 --> 00:32:46.240
not new and that the question is trendy and

682
00:32:46.240 --> 00:32:48.340
popular right now, or the answer to that question

683
00:32:48.340 --> 00:32:51.640
may not be correct. So just one example of

684
00:32:51.640 --> 00:32:53.800
insightful answers across the age is one place you

685
00:32:53.800 --> 00:32:56.860
could go. Among myriad different examples would be

686
00:32:56.860 --> 00:32:59.890
religion. The Bible has interesting answers.

687
00:32:59.890 --> 00:33:03.220
Whether or not you're a Christian, whether or not

688
00:33:03.220 --> 00:33:05.860
your same story, the Koran and Islam, et cetera,

689
00:33:05.860 --> 00:33:07.720
et cetera, et cetera, these are enduring texts

690
00:33:07.720 --> 00:33:09.520
just like the economic and ethics, because they're

691
00:33:09.520 --> 00:33:12.010
powerful, even if they're ultimately mistaken.

692
00:33:12.790 --> 00:33:15.040
That, of course, is up to you to decide. But you

693
00:33:15.040 --> 00:33:17.410
can't make an informed decision if you're ignorant

694
00:33:17.410 --> 00:33:20.410
of them all. And evidence suggests most Americans

695
00:33:20.410 --> 00:33:22.360
are. So the religious studies scholar Steven

696
00:33:22.360 --> 00:33:24.580
Pithier wrote a book about 10 years ago now,

697
00:33:24.580 --> 00:33:27.190
Religious Literacy, where he suggests with

698
00:33:27.190 --> 00:33:29.680
evidence that the average American is a religious

699
00:33:29.680 --> 00:33:33.530
ignoramus. Now, this is interesting because if you

700
00:33:33.530 --> 00:33:35.990
quiz people on pop culture, they can answer

701
00:33:35.990 --> 00:33:37.760
everything about some stupid commercial that they

702
00:33:37.760 --> 00:33:39.530
get hit over the head constantly about what

703
00:33:39.530 --> 00:33:42.170
happened in Game of Thrones season six. But you

704
00:33:42.170 --> 00:33:45.140
ask them about the Bible or the teaching or the

705
00:33:45.140 --> 00:33:46.910
Koran and what have you, and they can't tell you.

706
00:33:49.640 --> 00:33:52.940
So this is a problem because you succumb then to

707
00:33:52.940 --> 00:33:54.650
the tyranny of the moment, the trendy current

708
00:33:54.650 --> 00:33:57.980
opinion, even if it's false, is what you're stuck

709
00:33:57.980 --> 00:34:00.670
with. You don't even know that you're ignorant

710
00:34:00.670 --> 00:34:03.460
because you have no horizon beyond the present or

711
00:34:04.180 --> 00:34:06.160
the present moment or the news cycle, you have no

712
00:34:06.160 --> 00:34:08.620
broader perspective. You have the truncated,

713
00:34:08.620 --> 00:34:10.720
myopic vision of somebody sucked into the

714
00:34:10.720 --> 00:34:14.080
immediate moment, the immediate culture. Education,

715
00:34:14.080 --> 00:34:17.050
in turn, allows for deep consideration rather than

716
00:34:17.050 --> 00:34:18.510
mere superficial concern.

717
00:34:22.850 --> 00:34:26.780
Increases the odds of a good life. Why? Well,

718
00:34:26.780 --> 00:34:28.970
here's one example being a good person is far more

719
00:34:28.970 --> 00:34:32.600
than winning games or winning the game of life

720
00:34:32.840 --> 00:34:35.510
with the big job or the good job or the big house

721
00:34:35.510 --> 00:34:38.750
or what have you. Similarly, life is hard. Doing

722
00:34:38.750 --> 00:34:41.390
the right thing is hard. If you haven't considered

723
00:34:41.390 --> 00:34:44.780
what the right thing is, you have very little hope

724
00:34:44.810 --> 00:34:48.020
of doing the right thing because anybody who's

725
00:34:48.020 --> 00:34:50.810
honest with themselves knows that when the

726
00:34:50.810 --> 00:34:53.360
pressure is high or the stakes are high and their

727
00:34:53.360 --> 00:34:55.580
backs against the wall and they know what the

728
00:34:55.580 --> 00:34:57.830
right thing to do is, their knees are still

729
00:34:57.910 --> 00:35:00.710
quaking, their forehead is still sweating, they're

730
00:35:00.710 --> 00:35:02.600
still wringing their hands and saying, will I be

731
00:35:02.600 --> 00:35:05.180
able to do what I know I ought to do? And again,

732
00:35:05.180 --> 00:35:06.740
if you look in the mirror, you can think of myriad

733
00:35:06.740 --> 00:35:08.120
times where you knew what you ought to do and you

734
00:35:08.120 --> 00:35:10.910
didn't do it anyway. To take a very simple example,

735
00:35:10.910 --> 00:35:13.340
to prove the point, how many times have you said,

736
00:35:13.340 --> 00:35:14.830
you know, I shouldn't have that second chocolate

737
00:35:14.900 --> 00:35:17.570
slice of chocolate cake and then you find yourself?

738
00:35:19.040 --> 00:35:21.140
Now, that's low stakes just to prove the point,

739
00:35:21.140 --> 00:35:22.790
because I don't want to get in a fight about any

740
00:35:22.790 --> 00:35:25.520
particular high stakes moral issue. But the point

741
00:35:25.520 --> 00:35:27.080
is, we often know what the right thing to do is

742
00:35:27.080 --> 00:35:30.440
and we don't do it if we have no idea and we've

743
00:35:30.440 --> 00:35:32.300
never considered what the right thing to do is.

744
00:35:32.300 --> 00:35:37.100
We're really in big trouble. Third life is short,

745
00:35:37.430 --> 00:35:39.440
so what hope is there, if any, in the face of

746
00:35:39.440 --> 00:35:42.320
death enduring important human question? I got

747
00:35:42.320 --> 00:35:45.620
news for you, HBO, ESPN, Facebook. They're not

748
00:35:45.620 --> 00:35:47.090
going to take it seriously and they're not going

749
00:35:47.090 --> 00:35:51.200
to offer you an answer. Education allows you, as

750
00:35:51.200 --> 00:35:54.290
we talked about in the previous example, with

751
00:35:54.710 --> 00:35:56.930
seriously engaging those questions and see what

752
00:35:56.930 --> 00:36:00.680
smart people had to say. So education shows you

753
00:36:00.680 --> 00:36:02.330
the full world of human experience, human

754
00:36:02.330 --> 00:36:05.210
excellence, human foibles and failures, and then

755
00:36:05.210 --> 00:36:07.280
allows you to confront and consider wisdom across

756
00:36:07.280 --> 00:36:09.680
the ages and deliberately say, here's where I

757
00:36:09.680 --> 00:36:12.020
think the truth is. Here's where I take my stand.

758
00:36:12.020 --> 00:36:13.940
Here's what I think life is about. Here's how I

759
00:36:13.940 --> 00:36:16.910
ought to live and then struggle to achieve what

760
00:36:16.910 --> 00:36:18.560
you ought to do. Because, as I said, it's not

761
00:36:18.560 --> 00:36:20.420
always easy to do what you know you ought to do.

762
00:36:22.570 --> 00:36:24.520
So this knowledge doesn't guarantee a good life,

763
00:36:24.520 --> 00:36:25.720
but it's certainly going to help.

764
00:36:29.550 --> 00:36:31.560
So let's turn back to athletics quick here. I got

765
00:36:31.560 --> 00:36:34.260
about five minutes left, three or four more slides,

766
00:36:34.710 --> 00:36:38.850
open it up to questions. Look at it this way. You

767
00:36:38.850 --> 00:36:41.330
hold yourself to account on the field. You're

768
00:36:41.370 --> 00:36:43.710
tenaciously committed to being the best athlete

769
00:36:43.710 --> 00:36:46.230
you can be. And I would say rightly so. You hold

770
00:36:46.230 --> 00:36:48.810
your coaches to account. You hold your peers to

771
00:36:48.810 --> 00:36:50.610
and teammates to account, and you demand a

772
00:36:50.610 --> 00:36:52.230
commitment to excellence. We're here to be the

773
00:36:52.230 --> 00:36:54.420
best we can be. We might fail. We might come up

774
00:36:54.420 --> 00:36:57.240
short, but we're going to try to do our best to

775
00:36:57.240 --> 00:37:00.180
win as much as we can to display human excellence

776
00:37:00.180 --> 00:37:03.030
as best we can, both in terms of competitive

777
00:37:03.240 --> 00:37:05.820
effectiveness and also sportsmanship and so forth.

778
00:37:07.800 --> 00:37:09.270
But you should want to do the same thing in the

779
00:37:09.270 --> 00:37:11.460
classroom. That's my point. Athletics is an

780
00:37:11.460 --> 00:37:15.210
important part of life, but it's only a part of a

781
00:37:15.210 --> 00:37:17.910
well-rounded life in the classroom. You should

782
00:37:17.910 --> 00:37:20.280
thirst for knowledge, wisdom and truth, just like

783
00:37:20.280 --> 00:37:23.550
you thirst for athletic excellence. You should

784
00:37:23.550 --> 00:37:25.950
hold your professors to account like you hold your

785
00:37:25.950 --> 00:37:29.860
coaches to account. If your professors are not

786
00:37:29.860 --> 00:37:32.530
challenging you, if you're in a quote unquote,

787
00:37:32.530 --> 00:37:35.140
best class, as the students call it, you shouldn't

788
00:37:35.140 --> 00:37:39.880
be elated, you should be angry. I am here to learn

789
00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:42.490
there's important questions to try and address and

790
00:37:42.490 --> 00:37:45.340
figure out. Just like on the field. I'm committed

791
00:37:45.340 --> 00:37:47.380
to excellence. I'm not going to half assed my way

792
00:37:47.380 --> 00:37:50.630
around the track. I shouldn't have to ask my way

793
00:37:51.140 --> 00:37:55.340
through class. Think about how your attitude to

794
00:37:55.340 --> 00:37:58.580
class would change with that philosophy. Think how

795
00:37:58.580 --> 00:38:00.860
your performance would change if the classroom was

796
00:38:00.860 --> 00:38:03.120
treated like the playing field.

797
00:38:06.760 --> 00:38:09.550
So in closing, I would say this think about skills

798
00:38:09.550 --> 00:38:12.850
in the good life when Aristotle talks about habit

799
00:38:12.850 --> 00:38:15.130
again on my read anyway and what he really means

800
00:38:15.130 --> 00:38:19.010
is the cultivation of moral skill. Skills are

801
00:38:19.010 --> 00:38:21.860
necessary to see and experience the goods of sport,

802
00:38:21.950 --> 00:38:23.870
achieve authority to achieve excellence. We know

803
00:38:23.870 --> 00:38:25.250
this. It's obvious all you have to do is think

804
00:38:25.250 --> 00:38:27.230
about it. You can't swim and you're going to drown.

805
00:38:28.610 --> 00:38:30.860
You can't skate, all the goods of hockey are

806
00:38:30.860 --> 00:38:34.350
locked away from you. If you don't understand

807
00:38:34.350 --> 00:38:36.540
soccer, if you haven't rubbed shoulders with it

808
00:38:36.540 --> 00:38:38.460
long enough, people say it's the beautiful game.

809
00:38:38.460 --> 00:38:40.230
You say, what are you talking about? There's no

810
00:38:40.230 --> 00:38:44.130
scoring. It's so boring. What a waste of time. And

811
00:38:44.130 --> 00:38:47.100
I always tell students this because you don't

812
00:38:47.100 --> 00:38:49.260
understand the game. Go spend some time with it.

813
00:38:49.260 --> 00:38:51.930
You'll fall in love with it. It's the most popular

814
00:38:51.930 --> 00:38:54.180
game in the world for a reason. Maybe you don't

815
00:38:54.180 --> 00:38:55.680
think it's the best game. There's an argument to

816
00:38:55.680 --> 00:38:57.530
be made for that. Baseball is better than soccer.

817
00:38:57.540 --> 00:38:59.520
I think ultimately it fails, just barely. That's

818
00:38:59.520 --> 00:39:03.980
me. But soccer is an enduring part of human

819
00:39:03.980 --> 00:39:06.200
culture because it is a beautiful game, if you

820
00:39:06.200 --> 00:39:08.180
don't see that, you need to spend more time with

821
00:39:08.180 --> 00:39:12.850
it. And the same is true in the academic life, you

822
00:39:12.850 --> 00:39:15.450
need skills to read and understand Shakespeare,

823
00:39:15.820 --> 00:39:18.700
you need skills to listen to Bach and understand

824
00:39:18.850 --> 00:39:21.760
what's so amazing about classical music. Classical

825
00:39:21.760 --> 00:39:25.080
music. Classical music. Because you're a brute,

826
00:39:25.410 --> 00:39:26.880
because you're uncultured, because you're

827
00:39:26.880 --> 00:39:28.830
untrained, just like if I go to a wine tasting

828
00:39:28.830 --> 00:39:33.300
event, I say wine. Interesting. Similarly, you

829
00:39:33.300 --> 00:39:35.730
want to understand biomechanics and break down how

830
00:39:35.730 --> 00:39:38.550
a pitch curves or how somebody actually jumps over

831
00:39:38.550 --> 00:39:41.250
a high jump or what have you. All of that has to

832
00:39:41.250 --> 00:39:43.710
be cultivated to achieve Ourika. You have to

833
00:39:43.710 --> 00:39:48.330
cultivate academic skills. So just as in sport, so

834
00:39:48.330 --> 00:39:50.520
to the classroom, you cultivate those skills

835
00:39:50.520 --> 00:39:53.790
through time, patience, dedication and correction.

836
00:39:54.300 --> 00:39:56.550
Now, it's very interesting, again, the college

837
00:39:56.550 --> 00:40:00.270
athlete, and that is dedicated to sport in terms

838
00:40:00.270 --> 00:40:03.500
of time, patience, dedication and correction. But

839
00:40:03.510 --> 00:40:06.880
in the classroom, it's a coin flip at best. That's

840
00:40:06.880 --> 00:40:08.680
a big mistake for all the reasons I've been trying

841
00:40:08.680 --> 00:40:12.070
to articulate. So here's one more final example to

842
00:40:12.070 --> 00:40:14.680
try and get this point across, if you ever get a

843
00:40:14.680 --> 00:40:17.470
chance to study abroad, take advantage of it. It's

844
00:40:17.470 --> 00:40:19.830
never going to be easier than as a college student.

845
00:40:21.010 --> 00:40:23.350
And if you go study abroad and you get to Europe,

846
00:40:23.350 --> 00:40:25.120
you have to spend at least a little time in Rome

847
00:40:25.120 --> 00:40:27.160
for a whole host of reasons. But people go to Rome

848
00:40:27.160 --> 00:40:28.870
and they miss a lot of things because they don't

849
00:40:29.110 --> 00:40:33.820
know what to look for. Here's one example outside

850
00:40:33.820 --> 00:40:35.530
of the Vatican, as people are walking to the

851
00:40:35.530 --> 00:40:38.010
Vatican, I'm going to see the the Sistine Chapel.

852
00:40:38.020 --> 00:40:39.730
I'm going to see the piazza. I'm going to see the

853
00:40:39.730 --> 00:40:41.470
St Peter's Cathedral. This is going to be great.

854
00:40:41.890 --> 00:40:43.930
True, true, true. But as they walk into the

855
00:40:43.930 --> 00:40:46.480
Vatican, they walk past this empty field with the

856
00:40:46.480 --> 00:40:48.700
remnants of a weird walking track on it. And they

857
00:40:48.700 --> 00:40:50.890
say here, the Romans don't really take care of

858
00:40:50.890 --> 00:40:53.500
their walking tracks just because they're not

859
00:40:53.500 --> 00:40:57.520
Americans. But it's not a walking track. It's the

860
00:40:57.520 --> 00:41:00.880
old Circus Maximus. It's where the Romans had

861
00:41:00.880 --> 00:41:03.040
their chariot races, which at its peak, according

862
00:41:03.040 --> 00:41:05.680
to some scholars, could host two hundred and fifty

863
00:41:05.680 --> 00:41:07.810
thousand people. Now, that's the high. And maybe

864
00:41:07.810 --> 00:41:09.910
it wasn't that high, but we're talking about tens

865
00:41:09.910 --> 00:41:13.240
of thousands of people gathering to see these

866
00:41:13.240 --> 00:41:15.820
races and the races, contrary to what you would

867
00:41:15.820 --> 00:41:21.120
believe from Gladiator and other movies, the

868
00:41:21.130 --> 00:41:23.320
Circus Maximus deteriorations were more popular

869
00:41:23.320 --> 00:41:26.170
than the Colosseum. This is what it looks like now.

870
00:41:26.440 --> 00:41:28.480
And people go to Rome and they walk past it and

871
00:41:28.480 --> 00:41:30.850
don't even realize what they're seeing because

872
00:41:30.850 --> 00:41:32.620
they have not been educated. They haven't

873
00:41:32.620 --> 00:41:35.200
cultivated the eyes to see. They haven't developed

874
00:41:35.200 --> 00:41:39.130
the skills to see. Now, this is relatively a

875
00:41:39.130 --> 00:41:41.890
trivial example, but it's blatant and obvious what

876
00:41:41.890 --> 00:41:43.510
I'm getting at. And what I'm saying is this

877
00:41:43.510 --> 00:41:46.810
applies to everything else in education as well.

878
00:41:46.820 --> 00:41:48.700
The more you learn, the more you see, the more

879
00:41:48.700 --> 00:41:51.640
skills you have, the more places you can go. Just

880
00:41:51.640 --> 00:41:53.520
like swimming allows you to go to the pool.

881
00:41:53.530 --> 00:41:56.740
Skating allows you to play hockey. Literature

882
00:41:56.890 --> 00:41:59.610
opens up a whole new world if you're cultivated in

883
00:41:59.610 --> 00:42:03.700
it, philosophy, science, et cetera, math, et

884
00:42:03.700 --> 00:42:06.790
cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Don't squander your

885
00:42:06.790 --> 00:42:08.320
opportunity to learn.

886
00:42:11.610 --> 00:42:15.270
So final slide in closing, think about it this way,

887
00:42:15.270 --> 00:42:19.170
beauty amidst suffering. We live in a painful

888
00:42:19.170 --> 00:42:21.810
world in many ways, but despite all the pain and

889
00:42:21.810 --> 00:42:24.750
suffering we endure from the relatively trivial to

890
00:42:24.750 --> 00:42:27.870
the profound, the world's a beautiful and wondrous

891
00:42:27.870 --> 00:42:31.590
place. So cultivate myriad skills, at least at the

892
00:42:31.590 --> 00:42:33.780
basic level. We're not all going to be experts at

893
00:42:33.780 --> 00:42:35.940
math. We're not all going to be experts in science,

894
00:42:36.810 --> 00:42:39.360
but become a connoisseur enough to appreciate and

895
00:42:39.360 --> 00:42:42.870
understand so you can see things and have more

896
00:42:42.870 --> 00:42:45.210
opportunities to see and experience the beautiful

897
00:42:45.210 --> 00:42:47.460
things in the world. You don't want to walk past

898
00:42:47.470 --> 00:42:50.190
them. You don't want to miss opportunities because

899
00:42:50.190 --> 00:42:53.190
of your ignorance. And that will give you the

900
00:42:53.190 --> 00:42:57.060
chance to lead a virtuous or excellence life like

901
00:42:57.060 --> 00:42:59.640
this picture, to grow flowers amidst the rubble

902
00:42:59.640 --> 00:43:02.250
and the pain that is inevitable in life. And

903
00:43:02.250 --> 00:43:04.320
you'll be able to do that because of these skills

904
00:43:04.320 --> 00:43:06.690
in myriad places. Like I said, sport places,

905
00:43:06.840 --> 00:43:09.930
science places, language places, art places, dance

906
00:43:09.930 --> 00:43:12.510
places, math, literature. In other words,

907
00:43:12.840 --> 00:43:15.780
education frees you. It liberates you. This is

908
00:43:15.780 --> 00:43:17.460
where the liberal arts come from, which is the

909
00:43:17.460 --> 00:43:20.970
genesis of this lecture. They liberate you to lead

910
00:43:20.970 --> 00:43:25.150
a fully human life. But you have to cultivate

911
00:43:25.150 --> 00:43:27.910
those skills, just like you did with basketball or

912
00:43:27.910 --> 00:43:31.450
hockey or soccer or football. And that skill

913
00:43:31.450 --> 00:43:34.150
allows for deliberation and deliberation, makes

914
00:43:34.150 --> 00:43:37.810
you capable of choosing again, deliberately a way

915
00:43:37.810 --> 00:43:38.320
of life.

916
00:43:40.790 --> 00:43:41.270
Thank you.

917
00:43:45.490 --> 00:43:48.820
Great. Thank you so much, Dr. Tweek Meyer. Good

918
00:43:48.820 --> 00:43:53.680
stuff. So I will immediately throw the floor open

919
00:43:53.680 --> 00:43:57.670
to questions. If you have if you want to ask a

920
00:43:57.670 --> 00:44:00.250
question with your voice, you can raise your hand

921
00:44:00.250 --> 00:44:03.610
and I will call on you in order. If you want to

922
00:44:03.610 --> 00:44:07.180
include a question in the text, I will see if I

923
00:44:07.180 --> 00:44:11.140
can go through those again in order and we'll see

924
00:44:11.140 --> 00:44:15.790
what we get. So if there's a student out there who

925
00:44:15.790 --> 00:44:18.940
has a question, there's one of my faculty

926
00:44:18.940 --> 00:44:21.910
colleagues who has a question for anybody at all

927
00:44:21.910 --> 00:44:25.090
to get us going or break the ice. Yeah. How many

928
00:44:25.090 --> 00:44:29.220
girls did I score in college? Three, I was

929
00:44:29.220 --> 00:44:31.230
midfielder's, so it's not a terrible day, but

930
00:44:31.230 --> 00:44:32.760
obviously I wasn't a great soccer player.

931
00:44:34.830 --> 00:44:37.340
OK, so we have a we have our first question and

932
00:44:37.340 --> 00:44:40.290
the chat here. What advice would you give to

933
00:44:40.290 --> 00:44:42.960
students about achieving excellence?

934
00:44:45.030 --> 00:44:47.520
Oh, boy. Well, that's that's an open ended

935
00:44:47.520 --> 00:44:49.740
question. I guess the first thing would be to

936
00:44:49.740 --> 00:44:52.820
reorient yourself to the fact that it matters. So

937
00:44:52.830 --> 00:44:56.620
if you think about. If you think about your

938
00:44:56.620 --> 00:44:58.780
athletic experience, I'm assuming I'm talking to

939
00:44:58.780 --> 00:45:00.430
an athlete, but even if I'm not talking about

940
00:45:00.430 --> 00:45:02.650
college athlete, most of us play the sport to some

941
00:45:02.650 --> 00:45:03.490
degree and so forth.

942
00:45:05.590 --> 00:45:09.430
It takes time to cultivate the ability to dribble

943
00:45:09.430 --> 00:45:13.060
a basketball shoot with proper form. Use your weak

944
00:45:13.060 --> 00:45:15.040
foot in soccer. Use your weekend when you're

945
00:45:15.040 --> 00:45:17.560
dribbling in basketball and so forth. So I think

946
00:45:17.560 --> 00:45:20.500
students sometimes get frustrated too quickly and

947
00:45:20.500 --> 00:45:22.960
forget that the same is true of any other endeavor.

948
00:45:24.430 --> 00:45:27.330
And they say, oh, they get all fired up. Listen to

949
00:45:27.330 --> 00:45:28.810
this tweet my she says I should take school

950
00:45:28.810 --> 00:45:31.210
seriously. I go to my math class and oh, man, this

951
00:45:31.210 --> 00:45:33.370
is terrible. This is torture. Let you give it some

952
00:45:33.370 --> 00:45:36.370
time, rub shoulders with it, cultivate the skills.

953
00:45:36.730 --> 00:45:39.670
Math may not ever be something you love, but the

954
00:45:39.670 --> 00:45:41.530
more you learn, the more you'll be able to

955
00:45:41.530 --> 00:45:43.450
appreciate, understand why other people do love it.

956
00:45:43.480 --> 00:45:46.390
So a sporting analogy would be I'm not a swimmer

957
00:45:46.390 --> 00:45:48.670
for various reasons. The most immediate being my

958
00:45:48.670 --> 00:45:50.800
ears don't drain very well. So if I go into the

959
00:45:50.800 --> 00:45:52.780
water, I can spend the rest of the afternoon

960
00:45:52.780 --> 00:45:54.490
sometimes trying to get that water out of my ears.

961
00:45:55.510 --> 00:45:57.460
But I know how to swim and I spend enough time in

962
00:45:57.460 --> 00:45:59.620
the pool depreciate. Why? Somebody in a slightly

963
00:45:59.620 --> 00:46:01.360
different circumstance than me could completely

964
00:46:01.360 --> 00:46:02.920
fall in love with the ball and be a swimmer.

965
00:46:03.790 --> 00:46:06.160
Similarly, if you engage math, it doesn't mean you

966
00:46:06.160 --> 00:46:09.010
have to be a mathematician. But the attitude, the

967
00:46:09.010 --> 00:46:11.740
shift in the direction of saying I have to

968
00:46:11.740 --> 00:46:14.260
cultivate skills here and it will take time and

969
00:46:14.260 --> 00:46:16.870
dedication and discipline and maybe to some degree

970
00:46:16.870 --> 00:46:19.120
suffering. Right. You want to get good at soccer

971
00:46:19.120 --> 00:46:20.800
and be able to play 90 minutes without any

972
00:46:20.800 --> 00:46:22.630
substitutions. You're going have to work and work

973
00:46:22.630 --> 00:46:25.360
hard to get into shape or your heart will explode

974
00:46:25.360 --> 00:46:28.970
with 10 minutes left in the second half. And

975
00:46:28.970 --> 00:46:31.340
sometimes that suffering isn't that much fun,

976
00:46:31.340 --> 00:46:33.530
right? When I was in college, we had four a day

977
00:46:33.530 --> 00:46:35.810
practices. We had a morning run of at least two

978
00:46:35.810 --> 00:46:38.450
miles, and we had a vigorous practice at 10 a.m.

979
00:46:38.450 --> 00:46:40.040
Then we ate lunch. Then we had to kick around at

980
00:46:40.040 --> 00:46:41.750
too. And then we had another vigorous practice as

981
00:46:41.750 --> 00:46:45.280
the sun went down at 5:00. And you get through two

982
00:46:45.320 --> 00:46:47.630
days for two weeks, and you can barely move when

983
00:46:47.630 --> 00:46:50.300
you go back to your dorm, but you realize it's

984
00:46:50.300 --> 00:46:52.400
part of this larger project, this thing that you

985
00:46:52.400 --> 00:46:56.180
love. And the same is true of math as people that

986
00:46:56.180 --> 00:46:59.750
love math. The same is true of philosophy. It's

987
00:46:59.760 --> 00:47:01.580
always my goal with my students to look at my city,

988
00:47:01.580 --> 00:47:03.590
if I can hook you, you will fall in love with

989
00:47:03.590 --> 00:47:05.360
philosophy. You'll be looking philosophically

990
00:47:05.360 --> 00:47:06.980
around the world all the time and you'll come back

991
00:47:06.980 --> 00:47:09.770
and say, wow, this was difficult and hard. But

992
00:47:09.770 --> 00:47:11.390
Aristotle told me some things I hadn't thought

993
00:47:11.390 --> 00:47:13.640
about before. What if I cultivate more skills? I

994
00:47:13.640 --> 00:47:15.530
might learn some more things from him or from

995
00:47:15.530 --> 00:47:19.550
somebody else. So I guess to summarize what I'm

996
00:47:19.550 --> 00:47:21.560
saying here, I would say that the first step to

997
00:47:21.560 --> 00:47:24.500
cultivating excellence is patience. And it's a

998
00:47:24.500 --> 00:47:29.000
process. All right, good. Thank you. Another

999
00:47:29.000 --> 00:47:32.990
question. Come in the chat. What would you do? So

1000
00:47:33.320 --> 00:47:35.720
I guess you you mention you become what you

1001
00:47:35.720 --> 00:47:38.840
practice, you do to try and build up that

1002
00:47:38.840 --> 00:47:44.870
motivation to try new things. Oh, boy. I mean,

1003
00:47:44.870 --> 00:47:47.990
that's a big open ended question, too. If I wanted

1004
00:47:47.990 --> 00:47:50.360
to try and put it in one word again, I would say

1005
00:47:50.360 --> 00:47:54.020
instead of patience, inspiration, what you believe

1006
00:47:54.020 --> 00:47:56.060
in and why you believe it, and then think about

1007
00:47:56.060 --> 00:47:58.250
the things that can push you closer to those

1008
00:47:58.790 --> 00:48:00.950
overarching things that really get you fired up in

1009
00:48:00.950 --> 00:48:06.190
life. I love soccer. I want to be a good coach. OK,

1010
00:48:06.320 --> 00:48:09.200
what makes a good coach beyond the obvious X's and

1011
00:48:09.200 --> 00:48:12.200
O's? Here's an example. You're going to have to

1012
00:48:12.200 --> 00:48:16.280
deal with parents. You forgot about that. What can

1013
00:48:16.280 --> 00:48:19.520
you do to make yourself better at dealing with

1014
00:48:19.520 --> 00:48:23.120
parents or think about the amount of communication

1015
00:48:23.120 --> 00:48:25.160
that's important in terms of motivation and

1016
00:48:25.160 --> 00:48:28.010
dealing with the athletes and the ability to write

1017
00:48:28.010 --> 00:48:30.440
and how important that would be and being a better

1018
00:48:30.440 --> 00:48:33.110
and more effective coach? Or think about how the

1019
00:48:33.110 --> 00:48:35.090
fact that you probably want to move from coach

1020
00:48:35.090 --> 00:48:37.580
athletic director someday and how is the athletic

1021
00:48:37.580 --> 00:48:40.430
director a a leader and how leaders often have to

1022
00:48:40.700 --> 00:48:43.670
get people on board with what they think is right,

1023
00:48:43.670 --> 00:48:45.980
even though they don't actually think at the time

1024
00:48:46.160 --> 00:48:49.460
you have to be persuasive. So here's an example

1025
00:48:49.460 --> 00:48:51.890
then. Related to that train of thought, cultivate

1026
00:48:51.890 --> 00:48:55.520
the ability at public speaking. I don't like to

1027
00:48:55.520 --> 00:48:57.860
speak in public. Ninety five percent of my

1028
00:48:57.860 --> 00:49:00.440
students say and I say, that's exactly why we're

1029
00:49:00.440 --> 00:49:02.750
going to work on it. You don't have to fall in

1030
00:49:02.750 --> 00:49:04.700
love with it. Some of you will once you cultivate

1031
00:49:04.700 --> 00:49:06.920
a little skill at it. But all of you are going to

1032
00:49:06.920 --> 00:49:09.530
need to do it, God forbid, at a funeral or at your

1033
00:49:09.530 --> 00:49:11.450
brother's wedding. That would be obviously not a

1034
00:49:11.450 --> 00:49:15.440
bad thing or in a boardroom or in a job interview.

1035
00:49:16.280 --> 00:49:18.710
Cultivate those skills, too, even though they're

1036
00:49:18.710 --> 00:49:21.740
not obviously immediately associated with that

1037
00:49:21.740 --> 00:49:23.060
thing you're passionate about. I want to be a

1038
00:49:23.060 --> 00:49:28.680
soccer. But another question come in in the chat,

1039
00:49:29.040 --> 00:49:31.920
is it possible to achieve excellence in all these

1040
00:49:31.920 --> 00:49:35.130
areas, given a person's limited time and energy?

1041
00:49:35.310 --> 00:49:38.190
Is it as simple as, quote unquote, good time

1042
00:49:38.190 --> 00:49:41.280
management skills? I would say a simple answer no.

1043
00:49:43.030 --> 00:49:45.180
And I don't think we're all called to be excellent

1044
00:49:45.180 --> 00:49:47.460
in everything. But if we cultivate that liberal

1045
00:49:47.460 --> 00:49:49.800
arts attitude, we can appreciate excellence in

1046
00:49:49.800 --> 00:49:52.890
areas that we ourselves are excellent and we all

1047
00:49:52.890 --> 00:49:54.630
appreciate our ignorance and be open to the

1048
00:49:54.630 --> 00:49:56.730
possibility that math not for me, I don't really

1049
00:49:56.730 --> 00:49:58.770
understand it, but I'm not going to make fun of,

1050
00:49:58.860 --> 00:50:01.770
quote unquote the math nerds. If I go back to my

1051
00:50:01.770 --> 00:50:03.470
swimming example for a variety of reasons,

1052
00:50:03.600 --> 00:50:06.450
swimming is not for me, but because I'm educated

1053
00:50:06.450 --> 00:50:10.080
and cultivated and I appreciate it enough both in

1054
00:50:10.080 --> 00:50:12.480
the larger sense of this attitude and the sense of

1055
00:50:12.480 --> 00:50:14.400
spending some time in the pool. Despite the fact

1056
00:50:14.400 --> 00:50:17.670
that my peers don't train, I don't scorn or laugh

1057
00:50:17.670 --> 00:50:21.360
or mock at the people that are swimmers or the

1058
00:50:21.360 --> 00:50:24.390
people that are jotters. I like to run to chase a

1059
00:50:24.390 --> 00:50:26.310
ball. I don't particularly like to run for its own

1060
00:50:26.310 --> 00:50:29.460
sake, but I did enough running pre-season and

1061
00:50:29.460 --> 00:50:33.090
soccer to get to the point where I could run two

1062
00:50:33.090 --> 00:50:35.640
miles in 12 minutes, which is not an amazing time,

1063
00:50:35.640 --> 00:50:38.880
but it means you're really in shape. And that was

1064
00:50:38.880 --> 00:50:40.920
intoxicating. That was like, wow, this is like

1065
00:50:40.920 --> 00:50:44.280
Forrest Gump. This is meaningful. I can go

1066
00:50:44.280 --> 00:50:46.470
somewhere I couldn't go before. That didn't turn

1067
00:50:46.470 --> 00:50:48.330
me into a runner, but it did cultivate

1068
00:50:48.360 --> 00:50:50.130
appreciation for an excellence that I don't

1069
00:50:50.130 --> 00:50:51.600
particularly have or engage.

1070
00:50:53.630 --> 00:50:57.660
But, uh, any other questions

1071
00:51:00.510 --> 00:51:05.580
either in the chat? Steve, thank you for this

1072
00:51:05.580 --> 00:51:08.160
interesting talk. What was the Greek or Roman

1073
00:51:08.160 --> 00:51:12.240
response to then? It can be a and ethics. Oh, well,

1074
00:51:12.240 --> 00:51:15.760
I mean. I don't know that I could give you a

1075
00:51:15.760 --> 00:51:17.800
strictly historical answer to that, other than to

1076
00:51:17.800 --> 00:51:19.840
say obviously it's endured, which means people

1077
00:51:19.840 --> 00:51:23.980
were affected by it. The Roman man on the street

1078
00:51:23.980 --> 00:51:26.290
or the or the Greek woman on the street probably

1079
00:51:26.290 --> 00:51:28.270
didn't have access to it because as I mentioned

1080
00:51:28.270 --> 00:51:30.460
before, education was a very limited thing for a

1081
00:51:30.460 --> 00:51:31.120
long time.

1082
00:51:33.130 --> 00:51:36.760
But Aristotle's text, to some degree survived due

1083
00:51:36.760 --> 00:51:40.000
to dumb luck, but also because people were trying

1084
00:51:40.000 --> 00:51:41.980
to cultivate and protect them and pass them on

1085
00:51:41.980 --> 00:51:45.010
because of how impactful they were to the people

1086
00:51:45.010 --> 00:51:48.340
that engaged and read them. You know, Plato had at

1087
00:51:48.340 --> 00:51:51.070
his school, the Academy, Aristotle had his

1088
00:51:51.070 --> 00:51:54.310
peripatetic school at the Lyceum and so forth. So

1089
00:51:54.790 --> 00:51:57.520
in one sense, it was probably quite limited, but

1090
00:51:57.520 --> 00:51:59.650
in another sense, obviously quite profound because

1091
00:51:59.650 --> 00:52:01.150
we're still here talking about it. Twenty five

1092
00:52:01.150 --> 00:52:03.130
years, twenty five hundred years later, because it

1093
00:52:03.130 --> 00:52:05.770
is profound and still speaks to people and also

1094
00:52:05.770 --> 00:52:08.110
because it survived, because of how important the

1095
00:52:08.110 --> 00:52:10.210
limited number of people who had the tools and

1096
00:52:10.780 --> 00:52:14.140
skills to engage it found it as profound.

1097
00:52:17.650 --> 00:52:25.080
OK, anybody else I have a question or two myself

1098
00:52:25.080 --> 00:52:28.990
is provided with the opportunity, but I will leave

1099
00:52:28.990 --> 00:52:31.980
it open to the floor if the questions are coming

1100
00:52:32.020 --> 00:52:32.380
from.

1101
00:52:36.210 --> 00:52:40.140
Let me let me show you, Dr. Touma, so what how

1102
00:52:40.140 --> 00:52:43.650
would you respond to somebody who says, look, this

1103
00:52:43.650 --> 00:52:46.710
is an elitist position. It's like youth here. Are

1104
00:52:46.710 --> 00:52:49.290
you telling me to become cultivated and the things

1105
00:52:49.290 --> 00:52:53.310
that you find important to be cultivated? I find

1106
00:52:53.310 --> 00:52:55.740
it to be important to be cultivated in that stuff.

1107
00:52:55.770 --> 00:53:00.180
I'm OK. You're watching ESPN and had to be correct.

1108
00:53:01.020 --> 00:53:03.120
And that's a move that can be made. And I would

1109
00:53:03.120 --> 00:53:07.470
not want to compel or force people to get up off

1110
00:53:07.470 --> 00:53:11.820
the couch as much as they ought to. I guess I

1111
00:53:11.820 --> 00:53:13.860
would go back to the argument I made against

1112
00:53:13.860 --> 00:53:16.260
hedonism in principle and say, go ahead, test it

1113
00:53:16.260 --> 00:53:19.500
out, see if you lead a flourishing life, which is,

1114
00:53:19.500 --> 00:53:21.390
strictly speaking, what Aristotle was talking

1115
00:53:21.390 --> 00:53:23.130
about with their happiness. The word is eudaimonia,

1116
00:53:23.460 --> 00:53:27.540
human flourishing, tested. See if HBO and Facebook

1117
00:53:27.540 --> 00:53:30.810
and Funyuns on the couch really lead to a happy,

1118
00:53:30.810 --> 00:53:32.490
flourishing life. And we could look at the

1119
00:53:32.490 --> 00:53:35.130
physiological outcomes to the personal outcomes

1120
00:53:35.130 --> 00:53:37.290
and everything else. And we were good evidence to

1121
00:53:37.290 --> 00:53:40.260
say nothing wrong with a movie per say. We

1122
00:53:40.260 --> 00:53:42.540
shouldn't be banning video games. We shouldn't

1123
00:53:42.540 --> 00:53:45.690
necessarily tell people they can't eat this or

1124
00:53:45.690 --> 00:53:49.140
that in any sort of legalistic way. But we know

1125
00:53:49.140 --> 00:53:50.970
what counts as human flourishing and it's not

1126
00:53:50.970 --> 00:53:55.110
sitting on the couch watching HBO 24/7. So there

1127
00:53:55.140 --> 00:53:57.570
are objective facts basically when it comes to

1128
00:53:57.570 --> 00:53:59.190
human flourishing, is what you're saying, given

1129
00:53:59.190 --> 00:54:02.070
the kind of species? Yeah, yeah, of course. And

1130
00:54:02.070 --> 00:54:04.830
the more the the more specific we get, the more

1131
00:54:04.830 --> 00:54:06.810
dubious it becomes because we would end up in a

1132
00:54:06.810 --> 00:54:09.480
one size fits all situation, which is a problem.

1133
00:54:10.050 --> 00:54:11.610
But that doesn't mean there are no general

1134
00:54:11.610 --> 00:54:12.930
principles that are objective.

1135
00:54:16.710 --> 00:54:21.160
Could anybody nobody wants to talk at all. It's

1136
00:54:22.420 --> 00:54:24.840
scary. I mentioned public speaking, nobody likes

1137
00:54:24.840 --> 00:54:27.930
it. Here's here's a question from a student. How

1138
00:54:27.930 --> 00:54:32.070
can students balance sports, school and life while

1139
00:54:32.070 --> 00:54:35.640
still trying to maintain good grades? And I would

1140
00:54:35.650 --> 00:54:38.610
say I would add maybe that the our community

1141
00:54:38.610 --> 00:54:42.600
college population very much there's there's not

1142
00:54:42.600 --> 00:54:45.750
just part time jobs. There's full time jobs here,

1143
00:54:45.750 --> 00:54:48.300
like students often have full time jobs, sports,

1144
00:54:48.300 --> 00:54:51.540
school life. How do you try to do all of that and

1145
00:54:51.540 --> 00:54:56.430
maintain good grades? Well, I mean, a one word

1146
00:54:56.430 --> 00:54:58.020
answer that doesn't do much work would say

1147
00:54:58.020 --> 00:55:02.250
prioritize the easy way to escape the dilemma. The

1148
00:55:02.260 --> 00:55:04.200
tongue in cheek answer would be, don't go to

1149
00:55:04.200 --> 00:55:06.330
Division one school where the athletic demands are

1150
00:55:06.330 --> 00:55:10.740
higher and ridiculous. But you're speaking, I

1151
00:55:10.740 --> 00:55:13.470
think, practically to your own situation. And I

1152
00:55:13.470 --> 00:55:17.090
would say I don't have a one size fits all answer

1153
00:55:17.100 --> 00:55:21.060
there other than to say you've got to prioritize

1154
00:55:21.780 --> 00:55:24.750
what's most important. There's only so many hours

1155
00:55:24.750 --> 00:55:28.260
in the day you do need to eat and a roof over your

1156
00:55:28.260 --> 00:55:30.660
head. You got to pay tuition and you probably do

1157
00:55:30.660 --> 00:55:32.100
need to work to some degree.

1158
00:55:34.260 --> 00:55:38.550
But on the other hand, right, education should

1159
00:55:38.550 --> 00:55:40.890
probably take a priority because the job you have

1160
00:55:40.890 --> 00:55:42.750
now is probably not the job you want to keep.

1161
00:55:43.470 --> 00:55:45.300
Never mind education for its own sake, because I

1162
00:55:45.300 --> 00:55:46.140
tried to argue.

1163
00:55:48.330 --> 00:55:50.550
I don't know if that's an answer or a dodge, but,

1164
00:55:50.930 --> 00:55:52.770
you know, these these are that this is why

1165
00:55:52.770 --> 00:55:55.770
philosophy and this this deliberative mindset that

1166
00:55:55.770 --> 00:55:57.810
Aristotle was talking about so important, because

1167
00:55:57.810 --> 00:56:00.360
real world interrupts and we have to have the

1168
00:56:00.360 --> 00:56:03.450
prudence, the practical wisdom to decide how

1169
00:56:03.450 --> 00:56:05.970
should I lead my life when I've got to pay my bill

1170
00:56:06.420 --> 00:56:08.790
and I want to excel in school and so forth. And

1171
00:56:09.120 --> 00:56:11.760
there's not a one size fits all answer there other

1172
00:56:11.760 --> 00:56:13.770
than say, don't overload yourself because there's

1173
00:56:13.770 --> 00:56:15.810
so many hours in the day. There's not a magic

1174
00:56:16.020 --> 00:56:19.740
bookkeeping formula that will do it. But that idea

1175
00:56:19.740 --> 00:56:21.690
of prioritization will help because

1176
00:56:23.790 --> 00:56:26.430
if you pay attention, you'll find yourself to some

1177
00:56:26.430 --> 00:56:30.570
degree, squandering time. It's not purely a time

1178
00:56:30.570 --> 00:56:34.110
management issue, but when you prioritize, you'll

1179
00:56:34.110 --> 00:56:36.600
find that your limited time gets spent better by

1180
00:56:36.600 --> 00:56:38.550
remembering what really matters and what doesn't.

1181
00:56:40.170 --> 00:56:45.540
But I'm hearing patients I'm hearing prioritize. I

1182
00:56:45.540 --> 00:56:48.510
have one where I one started about last last

1183
00:56:48.510 --> 00:56:53.040
second question. Our son talks a lot about or at

1184
00:56:53.040 --> 00:56:58.710
least refers to exemplars. Right. Not the kind of

1185
00:56:58.710 --> 00:57:02.010
person who exemplifies and like the virtuous

1186
00:57:02.010 --> 00:57:04.770
person, the excellent person. Is there anybody

1187
00:57:05.370 --> 00:57:09.750
that we might recognize? Is there anybody you

1188
00:57:09.750 --> 00:57:15.180
think is an exemplar? And maybe more specifically

1189
00:57:16.680 --> 00:57:19.560
is the kind of person who balances the academic

1190
00:57:19.560 --> 00:57:21.720
excellence with sporting excellence without a

1191
00:57:21.720 --> 00:57:25.320
college athlete or a professional athlete, anybody?

1192
00:57:27.030 --> 00:57:29.130
Good question. I'm trying to get a name to leap to

1193
00:57:29.130 --> 00:57:31.230
mind and nobody's leaping to mind immediately. I'm

1194
00:57:31.230 --> 00:57:35.160
sure if you look, you'll find some people who are

1195
00:57:37.290 --> 00:57:40.050
athletic, academic and all conference at the same

1196
00:57:40.050 --> 00:57:41.100
time and so forth.

1197
00:57:43.200 --> 00:57:46.410
That's one measure of what you're talking about.

1198
00:57:48.410 --> 00:57:52.190
You know, I can't think of anybody specifically

1199
00:57:52.190 --> 00:57:54.140
off the top of my head, and I guess what I would

1200
00:57:54.140 --> 00:57:56.630
say is instead of looking for an exemplar out

1201
00:57:56.630 --> 00:58:00.890
there in the media or in a popular culture, you're

1202
00:58:00.890 --> 00:58:02.900
really better off finding an exemplar in your

1203
00:58:02.900 --> 00:58:06.000
immediate circle of people you interact with. Look,

1204
00:58:07.460 --> 00:58:09.410
this is what we do when we choose good mentors,

1205
00:58:09.410 --> 00:58:11.330
for example. So

1206
00:58:14.120 --> 00:58:16.880
your teammates will exhibit virtues on the field

1207
00:58:16.880 --> 00:58:18.500
that you try to emulate, for example.

1208
00:58:21.300 --> 00:58:24.180
And your peers will do the same thing in the in

1209
00:58:24.180 --> 00:58:26.190
the lunchroom, in the classroom and so forth, if

1210
00:58:26.190 --> 00:58:27.840
you start to pay attention and look, it's the same

1211
00:58:27.840 --> 00:58:29.250
thing with your coaches. Your coaches aren't

1212
00:58:29.250 --> 00:58:32.220
perfect, your teachers aren't perfect, and you

1213
00:58:32.220 --> 00:58:33.780
don't necessarily want to emulate everything they

1214
00:58:33.780 --> 00:58:37.380
do. But if you pay attention, the attitude of

1215
00:58:37.380 --> 00:58:40.170
inquiry should be infectious. If you pay attention

1216
00:58:40.170 --> 00:58:46.900
to your your teachers and so forth. OK, good stuff.

1217
00:58:47.020 --> 00:58:50.460
OK, thank you, Dr. Touma. It's one thirty two so

1218
00:58:50.460 --> 00:58:58.760
we are out of time. So thanks again to our our

1219
00:58:58.770 --> 00:59:01.260
speaker here, Dr. Tweet. My thanks to everybody

1220
00:59:01.260 --> 00:59:03.120
who showed up with one last comment here is not

1221
00:59:03.120 --> 00:59:05.160
quite to question. Our students who are in sports

1222
00:59:05.160 --> 00:59:07.440
tend to be the exemplars in our classrooms that

1223
00:59:07.440 --> 00:59:09.780
also you see. So that's a that's that's a good

1224
00:59:09.780 --> 00:59:13.440
thing to hear. I'm sure you'll agree. So thanks

1225
00:59:13.440 --> 00:59:16.830
again, Dr. Meyer and I will be in touch on the

1226
00:59:16.830 --> 00:59:21.870
emails. All right. And we will well, have a

1227
00:59:21.870 --> 00:59:24.330
wonderful weekend. You do the same. Thanks so much

1228
00:59:24.330 --> 00:59:28.620
for having me. Thank you. And I will make the

1229
00:59:28.620 --> 00:59:30.780
recording available as soon as I as soon as I

1230
00:59:30.780 --> 00:59:32.850
figure that out. Sounds good. Have a great weekend.

1231
00:59:33.240 --> 00:59:37.930
OK. By everyone, thank you. Thanks, Pat.