Happiness: A Guide to a Good Life, Aristotle for the New Century by Jean Vanier

Author:Jean Vanier [Vanier, Jean]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781611454970
Publisher: Arcade Publishing
Published: 2011-11-21T05:00:00+00:00

Through the practice of contemplating the stars, the intelligence learns to see further. It progresses in contemplation.

The intelligence must also learn to see each thing in its deepest dimension, which is to say from the point of view of its end. Where is it going? What is its good? These are the questions that the intelligence must ask if it wishes to grasp a thing at its source. Aristotle thinks the human mind is capable of this; he must himself have undergone a very powerful intellectual experience of the source of being. He came to the understanding that the source of everything is the good towards which it tends, and that consequently true knowledge sees things from the point of view of their end. The evolution of a flower is understood in relation to the end at which it aims: the bearing of fruit. But things are not isolated. There is an order in the universe that holds everything together. In the end the flower returns to the earth, because everything is in a state of movement, and that is another good. To learn to contemplate is thus also to get used to seeing things as part of a whole, to see that all things tend towards their good, but also co-operate ultimately in one final good.

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