Reading guide
2 readings
Learning to live well
Reading guide · 2 readings
Can practice make us more attentive to other people? The Analects and Aristotle both connect conduct with learning, though their concepts and settings differ. Compare what judgment does in a particular action before deciding how far the resemblance goes.
Read together
Form and care
Ask how ritual might teach humaneness, and why following a form cannot by itself guarantee it.
Guided course · Module 4 · Lesson 13
Learning to become humane
Selected passages of the Analects suggest how learning and ritual might form humane conduct. Why can a correct performance fail to express care, and how can such teachings preserve unequal authority?
Habit and judgment
Ask how repeated action can shape character, and why a fitting response is more than an average amount of feeling. Both readings also examine hierarchy.
Guided course · Module 5 · Lesson 24
What would a flourishing life require?
Aristotle describes flourishing as a whole life shaped by habit, practical judgment and friendship. How do external conditions and political exclusions complicate that picture?