Aristotle's Practical Advice on the Cultivation of Constructive Habits

Charles K. Rowley: In 1993, in his book, Post-Liberalism, [John] Gray poked around among the rubble of classical liberal philosophy to determine what, if anything was left. He concluded that none of the four constitutive elements of doctrinal liberalism — universalism, individualism, egalitarianism and meliorism (or human flourishing) — could survive the ordeal by value pluralism and that liberalism, as a political philosophy, therefore was dead. www.independent.org/pdf/tir/tir_01_1_rowley.pdf

It seems to me that the character of Imperial Germany after 1878 can best be caught in the term "illiberal." [[I am using the term as the dictionary defines it: "Not befitting a free man . . . not generous in respect to the opinions, rights, or liberties of others; narrow-minded." The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (1967)]] - Fritz Stern, The Failure of Illiberalism, p. xvii

Humanity in the form of fraternity invariably appears historically among persecuted peop les and enslaved groups; and in eighteenth-century Europe it must have been quite natural to detect it among the Jews, who then were newcomers in literary circles. This kind of hu manity is the great privilege of pariah peoples;... The privilege is dearly bought; it is often accompanied by so radical a loss of the world ... that in extreme cases, in which pa ri ahdom has persisted for centuries, we can speak of real worldlessness. And world less ness, alas, is always a form of barbarism.
In this as it were organically evolved humanity it is as if under the pressure of per se cu tion the persecuted have moved so closely together that the interspace which we have cal led world...has simply disappeared. -Hannah, Arendt, "On Humanity in Dark Times"

Of philosophical idealism Aristotle said:
This form, which exists in the carpenter’s mind, is the formal cause of the table—but it can have no existence except in the carpenter’s mind and at length in his work. To speak otherwise—to say that there is an absolute Tableness floating somewhere that gives form to all particular tables—is “to speak abstractly and idly.” - Thomas Cahill, Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter - from Theoretical Mathematis vs Empirical Mathematics

Aristotle is quite clear that it is the rational life which is worth living, but to achieve something by means of one’s abilities is more important than just to have those abilities. - Philosophy and Literature by Ole Martin Skilleas, p. 29

In the following passage from Philosophy and Literature by Ole Martin Skilleas, the author states that becoming a virtuous person (who ‘does the right thing’) comes from developing the habit of doing the right thing. Knowing that one has done right and acted virtuously becomes emotionally rewarding. The habit of acting rightly also becomes the habit of experiencing an emotional reward from good action. There is the harmony and personal wholeness of learning to feel joy in well-doing:

In the Republic every matter of its organization is ultimately derived from the cosmic order, the real world beyond [that] of which we can have sense impressions. ... It is by imitating the order of the realm of the forms that we can achieve the good life. Not so for Aristotle. ... There is no time to sit down and think deeply about what is at hand, you need to act there and then. This is one reason why Aristotle puts such a great emphasis on developing habits. Learning to act correctly, and preferably with the right emotions to match, is very important. In developing habits, the actions we actually do perform are the building blocks. We become what we do, in a way.

Aristotle holds that the passions and emotions are educable, and ‘doing the right thing’ teaches you to match actions and emotions. … In being generous and therefore acting virtuously, and avoiding the extremes of being stingy or extravagant, you also have to feel generous … learning to act and feel in unison. Eudaimonia, and acting virtuously through the use of your phronesis [‘practical wisdom’ or ‘practical knowledge’], involves your whole personality.

In the 2001 Time Magazine article "The EQ Factor", Nancy Gibbs wrote:

In [Daniel] Goleman's analysis, self-awareness is perhaps the most crucial ability because it allows us to exercise some self-control. The idea is not to repress feeling (the reaction that has made psychoanalysts rich) but rather to do what Aristotle considered the hard work of the will. "Anyone can become angry--that is easy," he wrote in the Nicomachean Ethics. "But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way--this is not easy."

Even in the case of anger, to possess the characteristic of knowing the right occasion for wrath is an achievement of right habit.

In Giants and Dwarfs Allan Bloom adds:

Anger ... as Aristotle teaches, is the only one of the passions that requires speech and reason--to provide arguments which justify it and without which it is frustrated and withers.