Eight Lecture Videos on Plato's Republic book 4

A number of years back, I created two core concept videos - drawn from my classroom discussions - about some of the key issues in Plato's Republic book 4.  This is a particularly important part of the work, for in it, Socrates finally makes good on his promise to tell the other characters of the dialogue his answer to the central question - what is justice?

All of Socrates' lead-up in sketching an ideal city (actually, if you read closely in book 2, the second-best ideal city) - with the idea that the city is a person's soul writ large - bears fruit in Plato's analysis of the soul, its parts, and their functions.

That Republic book 4 analysis of the tripartite soul, and of the four cardinal virtues associated with the parts of the soul, becomes massively influential throughout ancient and medieval philosophy (and theology as well), exercising influence within and without the specifically Platonic tradition.  So studying this part of the work - enjoyable in its own sake - is also important for understanding the history of ideas.

Here are those eight videos:

• Happiness of Citizens and the City
• Plato's City and The Parts of the Soul
• Distinguishing Parts of the Soul
• The Cardinal Virtues in Parts of the Soul
• The Virtue of Courage
• The Virtue of Temperance
• The Virtue of Justice
• Injustice, Overreaching, and Faction

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Short Piece In The Stoic - A Time to Practice Stoic Virtues

Here's my short piece recently published in The Stoic.  I plan to expand it and publish that version in my Medium publishing site in the next week or so.  For the time being, here's the current version.

Widespread Shutdowns 

At the time that I write this, midway through March, responses to COVID19 have shut down a good part of Milwaukee. As in many other places, students have been sent home from schools, colleges, and universities and classes have shifted online. Concerts and sporting events have been cancelled. Libraries, community centers, health clubs, even courthouses have been closed. Many office buildings have emptied, allowing employees to work from home.

Stores sold out of foodstuffs, cleaning items, and toilet paper, and reduced their hours. Bars, restaurants, and cafes began to close. We hosted the last show of our community radio station, WXRW, which then closed until the crisis ends. Social distancing and self-quarantining have become the order of the day for many.

Stoic Guidance 

One of Stoicism’s benefits for its practitioners is providing a systematic and consistent approach to changing conditions and challenges of life. So in times marked by illness, fear, and uncertainty, it provides us with a host of useful responses and reminders.

Epictetus articulated one of those in telling us in Enchiridion 10 that whatever we encounter, we can ask ourselves what capacities we have to deal with it, and we can employ those capacities in order not to simply respond to appearances or impressions, but to behave in a more rational way. Among the capacities that Epictetus names are self-control, fortitude, and patience, each of which is among the virtues.

We should ask ourselves: what capacities do we need in our own present situation? During this COVID-19 crisis, each of the four cardinal virtues of Stoicism is needed in specific ways, helping us deal properly with the challenges the virus poses. And not just the virus itself, but also the unusual conditions it imposes upon us, the reactions of other people, and our own emotional responses to all of these.

Wisdom 

Wisdom or prudence indicates to us what we ought or ought not do, informs our decision-making, and helps us maintain a sense of proportion. Being prudent in the time of COVID-19 means maintaining “information hygiene,” acquiring genuine and reliable information and sticking with it, drawing the right inferences from it, and resisting temptations to spread misinformation.

Justice 

Justice is another needed virtue. For the Stoics, justice is not just a matter of following the right rules, fulfilling commitments, or treating people fairly—for instance not engaging in hoarding resources, whether out of fear or greed. It equally includes kindness towards others, going beyond merely what is expected of one to actively help others in need. Looking in on one’s neighbors, while maintaining requisite distance, for example.

Temperance 

Temperance is needed as well. Living on one’s own, in voluntary quarantine, pulled out of the fabric of one’s routines and interactions requires exercising some self-control, moderation, not just frittering one’s time away, or emotionally eating through one’s stocks.

Fortitude 

And that leads us to fortitude. As Cicero points out in On Duties, while fortitude does involve choosing to do what is right, needed, or noble in the face of fear, it applies to other emotions like anger, sadness, disgust, or desire as well. Virtue is not just a temporary fix We ought to remind ourselves about the need for these virtues not just during this crisis, but after it ends, for the rest of our lives.

Five Podcast Episodes On Anselm's Proslogion

One of the often underrated Medieval thinkers who I teach routinely in Introduction to Philosophy classes is Anselm of Canterbury.  He also happens to be the thinker upon whom I've published the most in the course of my academic career - and I point that out mainly to stress that he's definitely a thinker whose works are worth studying.  The work most students encounter him through is the Proslogion - or rather a short portion of it, chapter 2 (maybe supplemented by 3 and 4) - since Anselm provides a version of what later comes to be called the "ontological argument". 

It's a shame that most of the time, people don't read further on in the work, since it is quite fantastic (and even more so in the original Latin).  Even in his own time, there were critics - like the monk Gaunilo - who basically misunderstood what Anselm was up to in the work, and focused in solely on the argument about God's existence.  The Proslogion uses the same line of argument to lead the reader into consideration of the divine attributes, resolution of some seeming paradoxes, discussion of our capacities to even understand God, and in the end even some conjectures about what heaven would be like.

I recently produced five podcast episodes on the Proslogion, drawing upon the core concept videos I'd created for my students on the work. They don't cover the entirety of the ideas contained in the work, but do hit on some of the most important points and passages. (I'll likely shoot more videos on the work and convert those to podcasts this summer.)

All told, the five episodes come to a little over an hour of lectures you can download and listen to wherever you like.  Here they are:

• The "Single Argument"
• The Ontological Argument
• Divine Omnipotence and What God Can't Do
• Divine Mercy And Justice
• Seeing and Not Seeing God 

Seven Videos on Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Notes From Underground

My summer 6-week Existentialist Philosophy and Literature class, designed and taught for Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, is now nearing the end of its first week.  We are spending about five of those weeks going through selections from 10 key authors in the existentialist movement.  One of the thinkers we are hitting early on - next week in fact - is Fyodor Dostoevsky.

I've assigned the students Part 1 of Notes From Underground, with a chapter from The Brothers Karamazov (The Grand Inquisitor) as a supplemental text.  I like to provide students with a lot of resources in all of my classes, and in online classes, this is particularly crucial.  So, I produced a series of core concept videos going through the key ideas set out in Notes from Underground.

Here are those seven videos:

• The Intellectual, Inertia, and Negativity
• Pleasure, Perversity, and Suffering
• Revenge, Anger, and Justice
• Enlightenment, Laws of Nature, and The Will
• Self-Interest and the Advantageous
• Desire and Reason
• The Most Advantageous Advantage

If you find the philosophy resources I develop interesting, enjoyable, or useful, by all means share them with others. And if you'd like to support the work that I do, making philosophy publicly accessible, you can become a monthly supporter on my Patreon page, or if you prefer a one-time donation, you can Buy Me A Coffee!

Five Videos on Anselm's Proslogion

As I've mentioned in earlier posts, I have been creating new core concept videos for students enrolled in my college classes this semester.  So far I've released several new series, links to which are below.

One of the texts we are covering in its entirety in my Marquette classes, and just in part in my MATC class, is Anselm of Canterbury's short work, the Proslogion.  I created five new core concept videos covering some of the main aspects and arguments in that work (which is, according to Anselm, one long single "argument").  I hope to get to some additional videos on this work later on down the line, covering some of the other issues examined in the text.

Anselm is relatively poorly know and not all that often read (if you like, you can read my IEP article on Anselm).  When he does get addressed by philosophers, it is usually the Proslogion to which they turn, and typically just chapter 2 (and sometimes 3 and 4), where Anselm sets out what has come to be called the "ontological argument for God's existence".  There's far more going on in that book, however, as you'll see if you read it, or even if you watch the videos below.

So here they are:

• The "One Argument"
• Ontological Argument for God's Existence
• Divine Omnipotence
• Divine Mercy and Justice
• Seeing and Not Seeing God

In the last few months, I have also created several other series of core concept videos, on other key philosophical texts.  You might find these interesting or helpful:

• Aristotle's Metaphysics book 1
• Cicero's On The Ends, books 1 and 3
• Augustine of Hippo's City of God, books 5, 11, and 19

I'm in process of shooting a lot more video content, and you'll see more posts like these in the coming months.  We've got more Cicero coming up, as well as more Augustine, Anselm, Thomas Aquinas, Rene Descartes, David Hume, Hannah Arendt, James Rachels, and Lawrence Kohlberg, to name a few.

If you'd like to support the work I do, creating these videos in my home studio, used by learners worldwide, consider becoming a Patreon supporter!

Eight Short Videos on Epicurus' Thought

Some time back, I created a set of eight core concept videos focused specifically on several key ideas from the few texts we still possess authored by the great Hellenistic hedonist philosopher, Epicurus (which you can find assembled together here)

Although I'm far from being an Epicurean myself, I frequently teach his ideas in my Ethics and Introduction to Philosophy classes, so developing these short lecture videos has been very useful for me and my students.

I'll be discussing the Epicurean tradition again this semester in at least three of the five classes I'm slated to teach, and I'll likely be adding a few new Core Concept videos to supplement the stock of those I already have available.  Most likely, those won't be focused specifically on the founder of that school, though, but on the Roman poet and philosopher, Lucretius' main work, On The Nature of Things - and on book 1 of Cicero's On The Ends, in which his character, Torquatus, presents Epicurean perspectives on a variety of topics.

Here are the eight core concept videos focused specifically on Epicurus' thought.  Altogether, they comprise a bit under two hours of lectures, covering most of his main ideas, arguments, and distinctions in ethics.

• Practical Reasoning about Pain and Pleasure
• Pleasure, Prudence, and Justice
• The Nature and Usefulness of Justice
• Two Sources of Groundless Fears 
• Mental and Bodily Pleasures
• Moving and Static Pleasures 
• Three Types of Desires
• The Value of Friendship 

As a parting thought, although Epicurus was reportedly one of the most prolific philosophers of ancient times, we currently possess just the smallest portion of his works.  And we're very fortunate to have that, because nearly all of what we do have derives from Diogenes Laertes' work Lives of the Philosophers.  Because he liked Epicurus, Diogenes copied by hand three of Epicurus' letters and the Principal Doctrines verbatim into the last book of that work. Lucky for us he did!

Three Podcast Episodes on Plato's Euthyphro

The Sadler's Lectures podcast has been continuing on with the project of converting my video lectures into edited mp3 sound files.  We tackled the Apology first (here's the playlist) and then the Crito (here's that playlist).  And now, we've got three lectures - about 40 minutes total - available on another one of Plato's dialogues, the Euthyphro!

You can listen directly from my Soundcloud channel - or get them on  iTunes /Apple Podcasts or Google Play (I'll be adding more formats in the coming months.

The Euthyphro takes place right before Socrates' trial, and right outside of the law-court, where he runs into the very guy the dialogue is named after.  They get into a tangled discussion about the nature of "piety" or "holiness" - one which ranges over a number of topics and arguments.

In the process, Socrates articulates a problematic that has come to be recognized as a major issue in the Philosophy of Religion.  It's called the "Euthyphro dilemma" - and if you listen to the episode on it, you'll see why it's so important!

Here are the three lectures:

• What The Gods Disagree About
• The Euthyphro Dilemma
• Piety As a Type of Justice

As a reference for what you're listening to, you might want to get The Last Days of Socrates, which includes the Apology, Crito, Euthyphro, and Phaedo.  The podcast lectures are designed to help you understand some of the key concepts of philosophical works. So don't deprive yourself of the pleasure of reading Plato's dialogues!

The work involved in creating these podcast episodes is underwritten by my monthly supporters on Patreon. Want to become a supporter? Click here!

Video Lecture Sequence - Cicero's On Duties, Book 1

Last week, I finished creating a sequence of core concept videos focused specifically on topics within Marcus Tullius Cicero's work of Stoic ethics, On Duties.  I began shooting these last semester for my students enrolled in the two Ethics classes I was teaching for Marquette University. 

I typically include some Stoic ethics in my courses, and this time around I decided instead of having them read selections from Epictetus' Discourses, I would introduce them to Cicero instead.  On Duties provides a more systematic framework, which gives them a brief look at natural law theory as well as Stoic virtue ethics.

Hopefully these will be of use to others who would like to study a classic work of Stoic ethics.  Cicero himself was not a Stoic, but he drew heavily upon Stoic philosophy, and this book is a reworking and addition to an earlier work by Panaetius, the sixth leader of the Stoic school.

Here are the 22 videos, associated into sections by content, starting with the introductory material.  hopefully they will help viewers better understand the key ideas as they work their way through Cicero's On Duties.

• General Issues Concerning Duty
• Nature and Reason
• The Four Sources of the Right 

New Milwaukee Chapter of SOPHIA - And Our First Event!

Milwaukee now has a local chapter of SOPHIA!  This is a national organization devoted to bringing philosophy out of the academy and back into the public sphere.

For those of you in the area, we'd love for you to join us at our first event for the general public - Where Do Justice and Kindness Meet?

We will be meeting in the Community Room of the Milwaukee Public Library - Central Branch.  The event begins at 1:30 PM, and runs until about 4:00 PM on Saturday, March 17.  To sign up for this event, to learn more, or to join our local SOPHIA chapter, go to our Meetup page.

As A Father of a Daughter

For several years, I've been observing an interesting dynamic take place when matters of gender discrimination, sexual harassment, and other matters involving wrongs being done to women are discussed.  Many men weigh in, making clear that they are against all of that, but then they say or write the fateful phrase.

As a father of a daughter, I don't want to see her suffer. . . 

Those words - and others like them - have crystalized into something like a moral kidney stone, a source of considerable pain and aggravation.  Writing them by way of support of women inevitably draws irritated, offended, and occasionally mocking responses.  These responses don't come from the quarters one would expect - from people who claim, for example, that harassing women in the workplace is just fine, or that what others construe as "harassment" isn't actually such, or that offenders ought to get a pass - those sorts of positions. 

Instead the criticisms of these men come primarily from women who would presumably welcome allies supporting their struggles for equality, for recognition, for justice, but who instead view that identification - the father of a daughter - as evidencing the wrong sort of motivation for men lining up alongside women.

Ten Videos On John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism

One of the most commonly taught texts in Ethics classes is John Stuart Mill's classic work, Utilitarianism.  I give it a central place in my own classes, generally as a companion text to Jeremy Bentham's founding work for utilitarian moral theory, The Principles of Morals and Legislation.  Together, they provide a great overview of that approach in ethics.

Students do struggle with Mill's work, so some time back, I started creating short Core Concept videos specifically on Utilitarianism.  The first few of these, I actually shot during my class discussions.  Then, a few years ago, I created several additional videos.  I provided the entire set to my students - in both face-to-face and online classes - as a resource to help them through the text.

Since I'm now once again in the classroom - teaching two sections of Ethics for Marquette University this semester - I thought I'd add a few more videos on key ideas of Mill's Utilitarianism.  As it turned out, there were four topic that I thought needed additional discussion.  This brings the total number in to ten - enough to cover all the main ideas of the work.

Here is the full set of videos on John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism.

• Utilitarianism as the Basis for Other Moral Theories
• Responses to Criticisms of Utilitarianism
• Qualitatively Higher and Lower Pleasures 
• The Ideal Judge of Pleasures
• Why People Do Not Appreciate Higher Pleasures
• Utilitarianism, Sanctions, and Duty
• Happiness, Goods, and Virtue
• Five Conceptions of Justice
• Justice and Utility
• What Having a Right Means

I hope they prove useful for you as you read - or reread - Mill's work.  And if you find it helpful for you, consider passing this post on to other people you think might find it helpful.  If you'd like to support the work I do, making philosophy accessible to the general public, take a look at my Patreon page.

Stoicism, Kindness, and Small Gestures

Earlier this week, one of our dogs made the day - if only for a brief moment - of a young man who seemed quite down.  Amica is friendly with strangers by temperament, particularly so when she has a ball in her mouth, so when she saw a young man in an X-man t-shirt approaching sadly from the apartment building across the street, she greeted him as soon as he was close.  Tail wagging, she went right for him, and shoved her ball into his leg.  He reached out tentatively to pet her - she's a big, muscular, energetic dog - and when I said "she's showing off her ball to you," his face brightened, he smiled, petted her briefly, and strode off visibly changed in his body language.

That brought home to me important but often overlooked aspect of Stoic moral theory.  When you read the classic authors - Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius - you'll see a good bit of advice that one ought to display attitudes of kindness, friendliness, and cheerfulness towards others.  Is this merely about being "nice," observing social conventions, getting along and fitting in?   For classical Stoicism, the answer is No.  When genuine or authentic, such attitudes, feelings, and actions actually comprise an integral part of virtue or moral goodness.

I was particularly reminded of a discussion by an earlier writer, Marcus Tullius Cicero, who was not himself a member of the Stoic school, but who admired and appreciated many of their doctrines.  His book, On Duties, presents Stoic moral theory systematically and in great detail.  In his discussion of the virtues - morally good states of character a person ought to develop and act in accordance with - he sets alongside justice a disposition we can call "kindness,"  "benevolence," or "charity" (he uses the terms benevolentia and beneficientia, "willing good" and "doing good" to another).  What my dog did, without giving it a thought, and in an admittedly small way, reflects what the Stoics think we ought to do - how we ought to act - with our fellow human beings.

Trump's Inaugural Address - A Philosophical Examination

Like most Americans this election cycle, I closely followed the long campaigns and contests, participating in a number of discussions and observing many more, and voting in our state primary and the national election.  It has been without a doubt the most interesting election cycle of my lifetime, given how many issues were brought to the fore, the situation of cultural, economic, and political crisis and conflicts we remain mired in, and the alternatives offered to us in the form of candidates.  Although one can arguably claim that both main political parties do largely represent a political establishment, a cadre and class of wide-reaching scope and power, both of those alternately ruling elites faced stiff challenges from outsiders, one of whom lost (Bernie Sanders), and the other which won and then went on to upset expectations and secure the presidency by winning the electoral college (Donald Trump).

When I read that Trump planned for his Inaugural Address, delivered last Friday, to be a "'philosophical document' rather than a description of policy plans - in the words of his press secretary, Sean Spicer, I was intrigued.  What would such a deliberately "philosophical" speech look like?  Would it measure up at all to any of the senses that can be assigned that ambiguous term?  And then, I watched the speech - which I argue is indeed a philosophical one - read and reread the transcript, reflected upon its points and rhetoric, and decided to engage in some public discussion - as a philosopher - bearing upon now-President Trump's address.

Aristotle on Three Parts of the Polity

In our polarized, nominally democratic, political processes, there are a number of things that often get lost.  In my view, Aristotle sets his finger right on one of these, in a distinction he makes at a number of places in his works, most explicitly in the Politics.  One can analyze contemporary politics in terms of an ongoing, argumentative clash between the interests of those who possess wealth, on the one side, and the many, who tend to be poor but also free, on the other.  This certainly does capture part of the political dynamic.

Aristotle even goes so far as to say that the wealthy, powerful, and few have some legitimacy to their claims and arguments they make.  And likewise, he says, so do the many, the free, those who are not wealthy.  And, yet more importantly, as they press their own positions, they inevitably go further than they ought to, mistaking what highly qualified justice their side possesses for justice itself, and thereby engaging in some measure injustice, if their side wins.  What's left out of the picture is what both of those sides also try to claim for themselves - virtue, that is moral goodness, excellence of character.  Virtue itself puts forth claims, and they don't coincide with those of either set of interests, any party that claims to represent them.  And without the virtuous - who would feel almost equally ill at ease in either of our major political parties here in the United States - the political community ends up becoming impoverished in important ways.

There's much more to be written about this topic, as I'll do once our election is over, the votes are counted, and we move on as a divided nation to our next particular set of political battles. . . .

A New Series of Talks: "Reconsidering. . . "

I've been involved in so much philosophy-related activity of various sorts lately, that I've not had the time to write here about quite a bit of it, which might lend a mistaken impression of precisely the opposite -- that nothing has been going on! 

Last night, at the Kingston Library, we held the second of a new series of monthly community discussions -- the "Reconsidering . . ." series, this one called "Reconsidering Charlie Hebdo:  Free Speech, Violence and Offense in Context".  So, that means that it has been a month since the first session. "Reconsidering Ferguson:  Racial Politics in Context."

Understanding Anger - Lecture 2: Jewish Scriptures

Last Saturday, at the Kingston Library, we had a very well-attended second session of the new year-long monthly lecture series - Understanding Anger.  The previous session had focused on anger through the lens of Greek tragedy and epic.  This one looked at this prevalent and perennial passion through multiple perspectives afforded by another key source for Western thought and culture -- the Jewish Scriptures.

As always, there's many more people interested than can attend -- sometimes a factor of time, but most often of place -- so we video-recorded the session (you can watch the video here).  And as usual, although I came armed with many notes and a few handouts to structure the session, a number of digressions -- all quite interesting -- added some other elements to the discussions.

Six Senses of Justice in Saint Anselm's Thought.

Last weekend, down in Washington D.C., I read a paper and got involved in some very interesting and provocative discussion on the borderlines between philosophy and theology.  The American Catholic Philosophical Association -- one of my old haunts in an earlier academic life (I'd not been there since 2008) -- includes a great variety of what are called "satellite sessions."  Many of these are in fact meetings of other scholarly organizations and institutions whose membership overlaps partly with the ACPA, and one of those, with which I have a longstanding and particularly close personal connection, is the Institute for Saint Anselm Studies.

This year, the Institute hosted a panel focused specifically on one of Anselm's greatest works, the Cur Deus Homo - or Why God Became Man.  One of the issues about which I've been thinking for quite some time, and particularly in light of St. Anselm's thought and writings, is the relationship between divine mercy and justice.  So, when the opportunity presented itself to become the third interlocutor on the panel, I gladly put myself forward, and the Institute accepted.  The paper that I presented -- which is still in rather unpolished state (I'll post it once I've added the requisite footnotes and transitions) -- was titled "Is God's Justice Unmerciful in St. Anselm's Cur Deus Homo?"  You can listen to the paper, my responses to questions and comments, and the general discussion (after all three papers had been read) in this podcast, if you like.  What I'd like to do here is to take up a related topic that I inserted into a footnote of the paper and touched upon in the Q&A -- the differing senses of "justice" in Anselm's thought.

Aristotle on Anger, Justice, and Injustice

Last weekend, I attended the Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy conference, chaired two sessions, met a number of scholars as interested and enthusiastic about the thought of antiquity as I am, and gave the paper which I'd long ago proposed, "Aristotle on Anger, Justice, and Injustice."  Or rather, I presented the paper in a summary form -- I was assigned to a panel of four speakers, and each of us got about 20 minutes to set out the main lines of our research.

It wasn't a venue particularly conducive to recording the session in my typical manner -- a flipcam which could capture video of the talk.  But I did manage to record my portion of the talk, and the relevant Q&A on my iPhone, and then (after clawing my frustrated way up the learning curve any former PC user has with Apple's products!) turned the edited recording into a podcast, which you can hear here, if this topic particularly interests you

Plato's Treatment of Anger

In my last post, I brought up the emotional response of anger as a topic tangentially touched on -- but never worked out in systematic detail by Plato.  Not surprisingly, given the master dialogue-writer's skill  not only in leading the reader through complexities of dialectic, but in bringing before our eyes living characters, believable situations -- the sorts of encounters and exchanges in which moral discussion so often does take place -- anger does get mentioned in a variety of contexts within many of his dialogues.  I dedicated the last post mainly to enumerating instances of anger, to classifying those instances, and then to examining two sides of the same coin: who gets angry (or could get angry) in the dialogues, and who does not get angry (even though they could have)?

This follow-up post intends to dig deeper into the Plato's texts and thought, determining just how much of a systematic theoretical perspective on anger could actually be derived from those scattered passages.  It's certainly nothing as well-developed or complex as, say, Aristotle's treatment, nor for that matter even one comparable to Epictetus' Stoic perspective -- but it's nevertheless of interest.  Plato only briefly discusses what we might call the "somatic mechanics" of the passion. But he does devote some thought to the psychological workings of anger -- how it arises, what part of our soul or personality it arises within, why people become and stay angry -- and he does consider moral dimensions of it as well -- including questions such as: Is anger a bad or good thing? When should or shouldn't we be angry? -- but also extending to the very connection between anger and moral values.

Self-Promotion: How Much is Too Much (part 3 of 3)

Back last year, I wrote two pieces (part 1 and part 2) tackling a question raised by a Chronicle of Higher Education piece, The art and science of academic self-promotion, examining the key questions posed by it:  How much self-promotion is too much?  Can a line be drawn, and if so, how?  Is it a matter of hard and fast rules?  Or can it be more adequately understood -- as I think it can -- in terms of virtues and vices of character?

I'd framed it in terms of several of Aristotle's promising discussions in the Nicomachean Ethics, where he explores the virtue of truthfulness, and its correlated vices, boastfulness and self-deprecation, and also discusses shame and shamelessness.  These are natural places in his works to look for insights about the relative and respective values, limits, and modalities of self-promotion, aren't they?  The sort of truthfulness Aristotle describes as virtuous is precisely honesty about oneself, one's qualities, one's accomplishments, honesty in a public or at least not entirely private setting.  Shame, when it is felt -- or would be felt -- rightly, also marks the character of a person who has some limits, who will not just do or say anything, subordinate any other value or good to satisfy desires or advance interests.  Is this all that Aristotle has to offer?  Everything he has said or has to say?