It's helpful to read the ethics in light of the metaphysics. Beings aren't fixed but actualize their (possibly-growing) capabilities. Happiness lies in friendship, not fame or power or wealth, not because they're not good to have, but because for we humans as intelligent, social, self-aware beings, we can only actualize our craft and self-understanding in the context of others with some understanding of the craft and insight into each other, particularly with respect to building character, one's own and others'.

The first section is simple but profound: all beings strive for the good for themselves, so we have a starting point to address the good of each and possibly all even across fundamental differences.

> he has some pretty messed up and weird views

They do, but by insisting on rationalizing any view rather than leaving it as a religious given, he sets the stage for destroying bias. Remember, Aristotle trained Alexander, and Alexander's military was successful because they embraced rather than destroying the people conquered (if they didn't fight back), and they even lost a fair bit of his Greek ways.

It’s weird and messed up because Aristotle’s audience isn’t Christian or even Abrahamic the slightest. He’s right about rejecting abstract definitions that aren’t grounded in the elements of a situation however.

> he has some pretty messed up and weird views

What’s an example?

Plato is delightfully weird and engaging and way more fun to read than Aristotle, agreed.

The saying is a paraphrase of Aristotle's ideas on virtue.

Technically the words are that of Durant but the core idea is Aristotle.

"Don't believe everything you read on the internet" -- Sun Tzu

Pretty low effort article I like the quotes but yeah.

My favorite part is the useless comment bellow each quote like: "The commenter above has stated that the quote is not from aristotle, this is important for the article"

I expect it’s more similar to the Buddhist idea that happiness is cultivated in your own mind. It’s driven internally rather than externally.

Social and political are very different, unless you are overly concerned with accumulating power within your social relationships.

Funnily enough, people attributing "smart sounding" quotes to Aristotle has been a headache for historians for as long as Aristotle's writing has been around. The more things change...

The saying is a paraphrase of Aristotle's ideas on virtue.

Technically the words are that of Durant but the core idea is Aristotle.

Thanks for delving, I hadn't picked up on the misattributions. But I'm looking to read some of those books now given the comments here.

It’s also embarrassing to see a philosopher summarized in quotes or sayings when their real thesis is probably the opposite of what the snippet suggests,

Philosophy is not about clever observations! They are developing systems and arguments you have to actually read to understand.

> entertain a thought without accepting it

Entertaining an idea is understanding it. And, there is some research to show that understanding an idea is believing it. Hence, understanding an idea and not believing it is very effortful.

[1] https://bear.warrington.ufl.edu/brenner/mar7588/Papers/gilbe...

I see this quote a lot and can never find it in original sources for Aristotle. It seems to be a misattribution from the foreword of Religion and the Pursuit of Truth by Lowell L Bennion

https://archive.org/details/religionpursuito0000lowe/page/n5...

From Aristotle?

Along the same lines: "Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence." -- Robert Frost

There actually were religions founded around the philosophers. The mathematikoi were a cult of followers of Pythagoras that believed everything was Number, and they believed they could purify their souls by learning theorems. And the Neoplatonists founded a religious school based on the works of Plato (with significant elaboration by Plotinus). Christianity ultimately incorporated many Neoplatonic beliefs, along with Stoic beliefs that stemmed from Heraclitus, who argued everything was Logos, which has one translation as Word, which is an opening statement in the Bible’s book of John. Aristotle’s works also went on to have a transformative impact on Judaism, Christianity, and Islam through Maimonides, Aquinas, and Averroes, who all interpreted his works.

I agree it’s still interesting that major religions were not founded at the time of the early philosophers — maybe it’s because religion as we conceive of it today depends on a bureaucracy to sustain it?

The Greek philosophers were more wise, humble, and didn’t think they’re deities.