aristotle was a greek philosopher.he wrote a book that really laid ut his view of ethics, the way you should be in order to align your soul with that which is virtuous. aristotle characterized as one of the twin peaks of virtue, this idea of greatness of soul. in his telling, it is a virtue that you might think of this way -- you are great and you know you are great. you are not going to stoop, you're not going to bend, but you are not going to lord your superiority over those lesser than yourself. it was a virtue that was seen on the battlefield and also within politics. for aristotle, it was one of those things that really distinguished a person from the asses. >> again, when did you start thinking about writing a book about humility? what was -- can you go back to the very beginning? >> i would have to say that in hat seminar i mentioned in graduate school, it really struck me that there is a tension between the ancient world, aristotle, and augustin. in that view of magnanimity, think of it as fixed nature. some pe

our instructor for today is rahat and his pupil is his fan aristotle.on't believe what they're going to do. >> fishing pole with a separate arm on the end of the reel. >> they're going to pull fake human body parts out of the water at venice beach. >> ah! oh, my god. >> what? >> what do we do? >> oh, my god! >> whoa! >> this is l.a. so i think there are a lot of people who are maybe used to seeing this kind of fake stuff except this one guy. >> you guys mind giving me a help here? >> oh, god. >> oh, my god! >> he was a little surprised. >> oh, my god! >> oh! >> it seems like a lot of people know it's fake right off the bat. >> yeah, they get scared for a quick second and somehow figure it's fake. >> yeah. >> oh, my god. >> do you know what, it's pretty convincing, though. i'm surprised that so many people just wrote it right off. it's possible? >> all that detail with the missing finger, the missing pinkie, too, that's nasty. >> oh, my god! >> maybe the fisherman oversold it a little bit. >> i didn't want to say it because i didn't to bash aristotle, bu

aristotle writes it's not hard to do. it is impossible to perfect. so it is not hard to practice but you're never going to shoot below par every single day. late michael kelly. the wonderful dean my guest show mark stein who is on today. i've had some recurring guests over the years. they define my show. for many years hitch defined the show. he's on 70. i have the transcript of all of them. someday i'll put them in a book. he was happy most of the time. after i interviewed him for the last time, three hours on the memoir hitch 22 -- i didn't get to talk to him. he lost his voice. his brother was with him the whole time. peter is a believer and hitch was not. and i pray to this moment that at the end hitch would have figured out those times when he was happiest had to do with the right ordering of his life with what was good and true and beautiful and that which is good, true, beautiful, and define and define is available. here is how i'm going to be happy. when i sign your books. i'm going to be happy if over the course of the months after you read

the cat on the left is lazarus and the one on the right is aristotle. let me tell you about lazarus, he has a cleft palate. he does look a little like a vampire cat. when he was found, he was infested with fleas. he also had no top lip. he had a bone exposed on the roof of his mouth and he has no upper lip or nose, so basically he's only got the bottom palate and he's got a cleft lip. so, his owner cynthia chambers has taken him in, nursed him, that was two years ago. >> oh, little guy. look at him. >> obviously the medical bills were very expensive so she started a facebook page so people could possibly help out and care for lazarus. as you can see here, he has more than 15,000 people who have liked this page. the donations went to lazarus, but theyis otr pets in need. lazarus actually goes out into the community and speaks to kids and encourages them about their differences. >> the cat talks? >> that's awesome. >> i know. >> i would donate to that cat, too. >> the cat talks through its owner, though, but it does talk. some people have asked can they j

exploring the agora, it's fascinating to ponder the world of plato and aristotle and the age which laidtern thinking about economics, democracy, logic, and more. the stoa of attalos, from the 2nd century b.c., was rebuilt in modern times to house the agora's museum. with so little of the agora still standing, this reconstruction makes it easier to imagine the site in its original glory. crowds would gather in shady porticos like this to shop, socialize, or listen to the great philosophers of the age. in fact, socrates spent much of his life right here, preaching the virtues of nothing in excess and urging those around him to "know thyself." the temple of hephaestus, one of the best-preserved and most typical of all greek temples, dates from about 400 b.c. like the parthenon, it's constructed in the simple doric style. it housed big, bronze statues of hephaestus -- the blacksmith god -- and athena, patroness of the city. greek architecture evolved in stages. the capitals, or tops of the columns, were both functional and decorative. while just the tip of the architectural iceberg, these a

about collegety colleges -- what happens to our civilization when students do not -- read plato or aristotle do not read shakespeare or know in the bible. what happens to civilization under those circumstance. i'm merely you to speculate. you already see signs. one direction that the discussion often takes is people often say everybody should study engineering. quit wasting your time with the humanity be an engineer. they make money and increase value. there are a few problems with that. i want to make clear. i'm not somebody who says that p.m. i'm not somebody opposed to liberal art education at all. as a matter of fact, people who can read, think, and write are in surprisingly short supply. they could not write a paragraph. she was having to rewrite them. there's a lot of demand for people who can actually read and think and write. ic when people get on the high horse about engineering. i think the perception is engineering has remained a rigorous subject. if you go school and something like that you come out knowing a largely agreed upon body stuff. when you go do it works. i think if you

government handouts to continue them operating is it money that's the question because we know from aristotle's definition money has four basic attributes it's portable it's fungible it's desirable and there's an intrinsic value case for gold yes that's the one area that people are tripped up on d.v.c. and intrinsic value or what is your intrinsic value for big coin if you can speak on that well i like to distinguish between money on the one hand and currency on the other you know money is this mental tool that we use for economic calculation and you know it but we then use a form of currency that represents this the actual money money is a tangible asset though in the sense that we humans advance because goods and services pay for goods and services if for example you're a shopkeeper and i say i'm a. to pay for this loaf of bread next week that bread that transaction has not been completed you've accepted credit if i pay for that with the currency you've accepted credit you've got a risk a payment risk until you actually take that currency or convert that promise into some good or service beca

and i would see plato, aristotle, socrates, euripides and aristophanes assembled around the parthenonand i would watch them around the parthenon as they discussed the great and eternal issues of reality. but i wouldn't stop there. i would go on, even to the great heyday of the roman empire, and i would see developments around there, through various emperors and leaders. but i wouldn't stop there. i would even come up to the day of the renaissance and get a quick picture of all that the renaissance did for the cultural and aesthetic life of man. but i wouldn't stop there. i would even go by the way that the man for whom i am named had his habitat. and i would watch martin luther as he tacked his 95 theses on the door at the church of wittenberg. but i wouldn't stop there. i would come on up even to 1863 and watch a vacillating president by the name of abraham lincoln finally come to the conclusion that he had to sign the emancipation proclamation. but i wouldn't stop there. i would even come up to the early '30s and see a man grappling with the problems of the bankruptcy of his nation

what happens to our civilization when students do not read plato, do not read aristotle, do not read shakespeare, do not know what's in the bible? what happens to us in civilizationing around those -- under those circumstances? you are see signs of this, but what happens when, in fact, there is an academy that does not emphasize humanities at all? >> well, i mean, in some sense that a's what we have now, which is to say, you know, i don't know what percentage of college students read plato, but it's relatively small. one broader point, i mean, one direction that the discussion about the higher education bubble often takes is people who say, you know, everybody should just study engineering. quit wasting your time with that humanities crap and study something rigorous. be an engineer, they make money, they produce value. there are a few problems with that. and i want to make very clear i am not somebody who says that. i'm not somebody who is opposed to traditional, rigorous, liberal arts education at all. as a matter of fact, people who can actually read and think and write are in sur

few other economists could comfortably site aristotle and lady gaga in the same chapter. dr. phelps grew up in suburban new york and studied at amherst and yale and is the recipient in addition to the nobel prize, many international awards and donna reed degrees. please welcome our guests. [applause] >> thank you very much, professor auerbach, a pleasure to be here to speak to you about my book, "mass flourishing". the book is about the modern economies as i call them that arose in a few nations in the nineteenth century. britain and america in 1820, later germany and france, economies that remained well functioning to the middle of the 20th century. they were the marvel of the world, the wonder was not so much the high wages and wealth, there was rampant prosperity, material and nonmaterial. mark twain spoke of the drive and push and rushed and struggle of the raging, tearing, booming nineteenth century. one kind of prosperity was classical. modern economies were achieving growth of economic knowledge, growth of productivity, if wage rates and working conditions were constan

. >> you took classic greek in college so that you could read aristotle in the original?man, italian. >> once i dive in, i dive in all the way. >> that's what she did at at&t, where she started out as an entry-level sales rep. >> what we're about... >> she worked her way up, eventually directing the then-largest initial public offering in history, the $3 billion spin-off of lucent technologies. >> we are out to be clearly number one. >> that deal put her on the map, turning her into a celebrity c.e.o., whom everyone just called "carly," and it led to her hiring at hewlett-packard in 1999. she was just 44, the first woman to lead a company that big. founded in this garage during the depression by bill hewlett and dave packard, the once-dominant hp fell behind in the '90s, and the board of directors wanted carly to come in and shake things up. but she came up against a culture that didn't want to be changed. >> if someone offered a new idea, people would say, "oh, we don't do it that way. it's not the hp way." so, it became a shield against change. >> she persevered, though

marxism, socialism, social democracy, liberalism, progressivism, i just decided to reach back to aristotle and use a word that kind of encapsulates all of it: statism. and so i can remember when i used that word, my editor said what's this word "statism" mean? well, statism is essentially those who believe in the power of a central government and less so in the power of the individual and lower levels of governing. and statism pushes the notion that government has as its purpose a good purpose which is the devouring of the civil society. and those of us who know enough about history and tyranny and liberty and so forth, we reject that idea. but you can see today the statists as i call them, some call them progressives or liberals, what have you, utopian statists more and more are devouring the civil society. so rather than the government existing in a limited form, you know, to insure that justice occurs -- and by that we mean legal justice, justice before the law; enforces contracts, takes care of basic necessities like national security, securing the boarder and so forth -- we have a fed

the idea of looking at the choices that this character makes, someone who is in aristotle's terms a tragic. he's a noble man, an honorable man, a good man who made bad choices. >> i'm in prison for murder. um, i got 60 years for murder. but i'm the hero now. >> i will say for whiskey, to recruit these gutter tramps. they ain't trained and they are going against this valued general. what i'm saying is, that's risky, right? >> everything he's doing from the beginning to the end of this play is risky. once he decided to take that turn to go back, he got so much to lose, you know what i'm saying? so he's risking everything from that point on. yeah, he's taking risks. >> for every action, there's a reaction. so i can relate to "macbeth" by the choices he made, you know, taking his punishment, no matter how much he tried to go in and around it to fix it, it just got worse and worse, you know. and that's what it's like with our cases. choices was mistakes and now we're paying for it. >> his mind still ain't fully focused on the deeds ahead and now he stumbles along making plans and that's why he

there are a few questions that i ask that tap into the republican and patriotism that aristotle talksn's name? i can remember. that is what skitter talks about. i will ride with you on this that the founding fathers america went to war. we were outnumbered as americans, outgunned and out everything. these men had to fight against insurmountable odds and had to sacrifice. that patriotism is not just about sacrifice so is in chapter 41 question is you have a choice if it is increasing the education of quality of all americans would to be more willing to pay more in taxes? people love the tea party brought willing to do that. if not all of our country and makes sense to have the educated citizen. and make sense seven healthy citizenry, right? it presupposes education, right? it was one of the main things that chief justice warren wrote into the brown versus board of education and right? it behooves us right? in order to do that you have to pay more in taxes, right? is it not patriotic to pay more in taxes if you care about the welfare of the community? if that is your objective you have

it was the first time he ever cried in public, and lee had told aristotle onassis, and he said i'll make available. have the first lady come. i don't even need to be there. and jackie was so grateful, she said, no, please, have him stay, it will be wonderful. so she went to onassis' yacht, and that's where she recuperated. >> host: and dallas was one of the first trips she took, or the first trip she took after she got back. >> guest: that's right. >> host: there is a picture here in the kennedy book, the "capturing camelot" book of president kennedy and a woman named evelyn lincoln. and you write, kitty kelley: the president with his secretary, evelyn lincoln, who had worked for him since 1963. kennedy told ted sorenson whatever i do or say, mrs. lincoln -- in ten years he never called her evelyn -- will be sweet and up surprised. if i said, mrs. lincoln, i have cut off jackie's head, would you please send a box be, she would say, that's wonderful, mr. president, i'll send it right away. [laughter] did you get your nap? [laughter] >> guest: it's true. it's absolutely true. the very, ver

and this includes social democracy and liberalism and and i would like to reject aristotle and use the word the kind that encapsulates all of it. and so i can remember when i used that word and i remember being asked what is state is immune? and it's essentially those who believe in the power of central government. and less so the power of the individual and with lower levels of governing. and it has its purpose, a good purpose. which is part of civil society and those of us who knows know the history and so forth, we reject that idea. but you can see today the state has provided this and what have you. the utopian state is devouring civil society. rather than the government existing in a limited form to ensure that justice occurs without legal justice before the law, taking care of basic necessities like national security and the border and so forth, we have a federal government that is ubiquitous and it's hard to think of areas of our life for the federal government does not revolve around things in some way. >> should liberty and security, the liberty amendment, should they be red?

marxism, socialism, social democracy, liberalism, progressivism, i just decided to reach back to aristotle and use a word that kind of encapsulates all of it: statism. and so i can remember when i used that word, my editor said what's this word "statism" mean? well, statism is essentially those who believe in the power of a central government and less so in the power of the individual and lower levels of governing. and statism pushes the notion that government has as its purpose a good purpose which is the devouring of the civil society. and those of us who know enough about history and tyranny and liberty and so forth, we reject that idea. but you can see today the statists as i call them, some call them progressives or liberals, what have you, utopian statists more and more are devouring the civil society. so rather than the government existing in a limited form, you know, to insure that justice occurs -- and by that we mean legal justice, justice before the law; enforces contracts, takes care of basic necessities like national security, securing the boarder and so forth -- we have a fed