Categorized | Great Quotes
Aristotle’s Challenge:
Posted on 11 July 2007
Last night I had a hankering to revisit a book that I read in Grad School called Emotional Intelligence - Why It can Matter more than IQ. For the emotionally aware, it’s a great read, albeit a little tough going given all the neuro-psychology lingo, but it’s pretty damn intriguing. After pulling it out of the pile I’ve made in the hallway to my bedroom, and blowing the dust off the cover that’s accumulated since I’ve moved to San Diego, I opened to the first page and the first line of the book is Aristotle’s Challenge in bold italics…..
ARISTOTLE’S CHALLENGE:
Anyone can become angry - that is easy. 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 so easy. – Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics.
It hit me just as hard reading it for the 50th time as it did the first. Ponder that for a second. I think you’ll agree that it captures one of life’s greatest challenges elegantly. What makes it so profound is that it’s been a good 2000 years since these words were written and it’s still just as true today as it was the day he wrote it.
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Steffan - who has written 63 posts on Steffan Antonas’ Blog.
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July 11th, 2007 at 9:10 pm
Is Aristotle’s challenge not the perfect self-fulfilling riddle? Isn’t Emotional intelligence the art of understanding others so that you can see why and for what reason someone is acting, so that you, through this process of empathy, understand them and yourself, never becoming angry in the first place? Is this not the real challenge? Perhaps not, but I love it either way.