Ancient World

In this episode we continue the journey through the first book, and reflect on the framing of Dante waking up in the first circle of the Inferno, Limbo. He sees the souls lost there, and then meets the Greek philosophers including Aristotle. (More detail on this is already in Episode 32 & 33 on this podcast!)

I turned my rested eyes from side to side,

The opening poem of the Comedy is in some ways a metaphor for the whole work of three Volumes, with the journey through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise.

We continue our journey from the beginning of the Comedy, and in this episode we look at Canto 2 where Dante is convinced by his guide Virgil that he can start this endeavor with support from the Heavens. This warms his heart, and he finds courage in the following passage:

my wilted strength began to bloom within me

After the last episode where Dante meets Aristotle in Limbo, of Inferno - a listener asked if there is any way of escaping Limbo (the place for the unbaptized, thus also everyone living before the birth of Christ).

He took from us the shade of our first parent,

Abram, the Patriarch, David the King,

In this episode we briefly comment on the appearence of Aristotle in the Comedy, in Canto IV of the Inferno, and 
In Canto IV, Limbo, Dante meets the Philosopher Aristotle:



I saw the master sage of those who know,


All gaze at him, all pay their homage to him;




In Italian:



vidi ’l maestro di color che sanno


Tutti lo miran, tutti onor li fanno:


Canto IV, verse 131-135.

In this episode we go to one of the deepest levels of Aristotelian thinking, the consideration of the concept of Divinity. He describes this as the "First Mover" of all things, and also as "thinking in itself", thought contemplating itself.



The passage on thought is the following:

Metaphysics, Book 12 Section 7.



And the First Mover;


He also outlines the concept of Divinity of being "being" or existence, in itself. 

In this episode we look further into Aristotle's work on "First Philosophy", the Metaphysics. This is in some ways one of the most complicated and abstract of his complete works, and the inquiries go very deep into thinking and the fundamental first questions about the world.



Book/Chapter 9 of the Metaphysics, Theta, is devoted to the topic of potential and actuality - and can be used as a starting point for wide ranging reflections on practical choices in your every day life, and how to approach long term decisions and choices. Potential can both be in our nature, or be created through practice and learning. From the opening of section 5 in Book/Chapter 9:



"As all potentialities are either innate, like the senses, or come by practice, like the power of playing the flute, or by learning, like that of the arts, those which come by practice or by rational formula we must acquire by previous exercise."



The treatise of Metaphysics lies in some ways also underneath all his other work, as a ground for thinking and approach to both thinking in itself, and the application to topics.

From the opening of Book (Chapter) II of the Nicomachean Ethics:



"Excellence, then, being of two kinds, intellectual and moral, intellectual excellence in the main owes both its birth and its growth to teaching (for which reason it requires experience and time), while moral excellence comes about as a result of habit."



Plus reflections on the practical approach of Aristotle in general, and the positive outlook that how what you do becomes ones habits (and who you are), and good habits over time will build and constitute ones character.

In this episode we look at one of the most beautiful passages in the Paradise, where the Pilgrim reaches the sixth sphere of the Heavens:



I saw when I turned round: before my eyes


Canto XVIII, 67-69.



And this wraps up the commentary on the Paradise, for now!

A brief introduction to a partly hidden gem in Italy, the small town of Ravenna.