Last semester I wrote my senior seminar on Aristotle's concept of eudaimonia and how a cycle of work and rest could help to facilitate the necessary components of Aristotle's good life. What I worked with that last semester applies to this class because the action of work can actually be seen as striving for something other than just money or success. Work can be aimed at the beautiful.
Here is a quote from my paper last semester. In this part of the paper, I am writing about Aristotle's concept of virtue (arete) and its relation to excellence.
Virtue (arête) can also be translated as excellence; Aristotle sees living virtuously as being intrinsically excellent.When studying Aristotle, the connection between virtue and excellence is an important one to grasp. The virtue of a eudaimonic life is not just making the correct moral decisions; rather, the activities and lifestyle engaged in must be done excellently. Each action must be the correct action, at the proper time, for the right reasons.
Working for the goal of "excellence" is not something that we do very often in our society. Instead, other, more concrete, goals are aimed at. I wonder if this is kind of thinking is reinforced, even encouraged in our modern academic setting. If I can do three hours of work on a paper and get an A, that is to obtain to the highest level of academic achievement for that given assignment, why would I work harder? Even if I could improve the paper and make it better, why would I? But, and I make this same point later in the paper, we celebrate the great masterpieces in literature, fine arts, acting, etc. We want more masterpieces, but we don't want the hard work that goes into making them. If I want to see a beautiful painting as a masterpiece, it follows that I need to appreciate the work that it takes to get to such a piece. We need to evaluate our understanding of work and begin to define good work as something beautiful.
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