ANTARA HALDAR
In a 1995 speech outlining his “Visions for the 21st Century,” the renowned astrophysicist Carl Sagan called attention to the fragility of human civilization, given our infinitesimally small presence within the cosmos. Our future, he warned, depends entirely on our learning to live wisely and humbly together.
Clearly, we didn’t get the message. Three decades on, our “pale blue dot” is riven by geopolitical turmoil, and the late-twentieth-century hope for an ascendent global liberalism has faded. Faced with such radical uncertainty, the best strategy may be to return to basics. And to explore the most profound of all questions – what is the good life? – there is no better guide than Aristotle, whose Politics and Nicomachean Ethics offer a framework that is strikingly relevant for this age of moral confusion and civic fragmentation.
Unlike the modern liberal tradition, which exalts individual autonomy, Aristotle began from a different premise: human beings are not self-contained units, but social animals whose flourishing depends on the cultivation of virtues within a political community. To live well is not simply to do what one wants; rather, it requires the cultivation of character through lifelong education and habituation, and engagement in a shared civic life. (Not incidentally, the contemporary appeal of many nationalists and populists is that they offer a vision of the good life.)
No comments:
Post a Comment