Brittany Rexroat 
Lacy Hanson When listening to the lecture on the differences and similarities of the Greek philosophers I thought to myself that as Christians we take a little from each philosopher and morph it into something that is something that we can make sense of and apply to our everyday life.
Take Plato, he believes that pleasure is a temporary shadow. He could be talking about physical physical pleasure or he could be talking about physical pleasure as in materialistic items and how we should not take pleasure in things here on Earth because our true pleasures are in Heaven. As Christians I feel we that that to heart as our treasures are in Heaven. If you are not a Christian I feel you can still say that pleasure is only a temporary thing .
When Aristotle’s’ statement ¨Happiness (eudaimon) comes from fulfilling one’s purpose, from the complete life (hence not to the young)” was presented I felt that that is not all true. I think that one can be happy from fulfilling one’s purpose be you young or old. I mean how do you know if you have or have not already fulfilled or purpose. Your purpose could be just being. We never know what God’s purpose is for us so we cannot assume that it can only happen when we are older.
The differences of between these views of happiness are great indeed. One is more rational and the other more sensation based. The fact the their views of happiness are a little similar is a lot surprising. Plato being the logical and rational and Aristotle being sensational and experience driven that their ideas of happiness are a like in any way baffles me. I found this video that is horribly made and only skims their views but I thought it to be funny.
Alison
11:31 pm, 02.01.11
I like what you had to say about the relevance of these philosophers to both our everyday and spiritual lives. My one comment would be in response to what you said about Aristotle’s idea of the complete life. I agree that it is very possible for those who are young to fulfill God’s will, but I think Aristotle may have been saying that our happiness is constantly being formed by our every choice and action. Therefore, a “happy” life is one in which you fulfill your potential…and since those who are young have lots of life left, and thus much potential left to fulfill. Of course, this is just my personal interpretation.
Bradye McQueen
11:51 pm, 02.01.11
I agree that as Christians we take things from different philosophers to create our own philosphy. It is amazing to me to learn about the history of these theorists and realize how much they have influenced my own thought without me ever realizing it.
As for pleasure, it definitely is only temporary, but so confusing as it promises us daily that it will bring satisfaction. Only in Heaven will that satisfaction be everlasting.
They are somewhat similar in their rationales, probably because Aristotle’s thought was influenced by Plato, his teacher.
Anna Brinkman
9:52 am, 02.02.11
I like that you state that Christians morph philosophy into something that they can make sense of. This has always been something that has bothered me a little because I wonder if that’s how philosophers meant their works to be used. I feel that Christians want to accept certain things but not others so they put it together however they want and that is not the intention that these philosophers had.
Lawton Pybus
3:03 pm, 02.02.11
I like the idea that you don’t have to pick a side and hold it unswervingly. In the lecture, we talked about how Christendom hasn’t even done so over its long history. To me, reason and experiences are just two tools in the toolbox, if you will. Both of them are excellent tools, yet neither is sufficient for every job or appropriate for every task. That’s why I think it’s good and important that we take the time to discuss and learn about both.
LeeAnn Green
5:36 pm, 02.02.11
I agree with your statements about fulfilling our purpose. I believe that we can continually fulfill our purpose. We do not have to be old and dying to achieve happiness by fulfillment. I think that sometimes our purpose is to do the little things in life and those are just as important as the big things.
Brady Campbell
5:57 pm, 02.02.11
As a non-behaviorist, I think that the potential each of us has is non-specific. That is, that I personally have no specific action to define my purpose. I might argue that God does not have a persons life planned, even if it is understood. One’s purpose is to act toward God’s goals in the ways he can best contribute, which means that one’s purpose is not nearly so defined or necessarily limited. Because a purpose is not limited, and humans are not perfect, we cannot fulfill our purposes, however that also means that we will never be done fulfilling them.
Also, I would reason that pleasure does not have negative intrinsic value. Perhaps it is practical and useful. And so maybe we should not avoid pleasure.
Lacy Hanson
6:17 pm, 02.02.11
I think you’re right in saying that we can fulfill our life’s purpose without being old or dying. For all we know, our purpose could be just talking to someone who needed a helping hand…or simply living. We can never know our true purpose in life until after we’re gone. I also like how you use the belief that happiness is just a shadow and apply it to Christianity because that is true. Happiness is there for a moment and fades with time. But I must also add that happiness isn’t just one moment, it’s a series of moments in life that come and go.