One of the first things that I immediately thought when I first began to hear this man talk was the enthusiasm and something like love or adoration he had when speaking about Aristotle. In the question “Can Greek philosophy be a guide for life?” he immediately speaks of Aristotle’s focus on reality. This immediately called to mind the beginning of Aristotle’s Metaphysics where all men by nature desire to know. And for Aristotle it seems like all men desire to know reality. This philosophy that everything comes from reality through our sensory data is spoken of as being a part of a man who was passionately searching for reality.
What is very interesting to me coming with 19th and 20th thoughts still fresh in my brain is this focus on reality but not only in the things of the senses. His work in Metaphysics where man searches for the reality of what is the first cause and the substance, nature, and form of the reality that he experiences on a daily basis. In a society focused so intently on the physics of everything and the meaning placed in the present physics only, hearing Vanier speak of Aristotle’s passion for reality seems to be more complete than what is presented by more modern thinkers.
Vanier seems to make sure to paint Aristotle as a man focused on the person. Agreeably, Aristotle did not have a ‘full’ view of who a person was, but Vanier draws on what Aristotle sees a ‘person’ doing. The idea that a person was a part of a democracy like society, which for me speaks to a more individualistic view persons interactions. Aristotle’s society was complete with private organizations and bodies and was in some way surprising to me. I had painted Aristotle as more of a collectivist in my head. The ‘few’ are people ‘out of’ the group due to their virtue while at the same time raised up within the group to lead. They are not totally within and communal in the way I had originally thought.
Meta-Pres Site 