Quotes & Notes

Aristotle: The Law is reason, free from passion. STL: It makes me wonder if Aristotle, and probably many after him, regarded passion as negative by nature. If reason is considered the only worthy guide for determining behavior (and what is law but governance of behavior?), then for what purpose do we have passion? While it may sometimes lead to all sorts of evil, passion is certainly capable of producing the opposite. And is reason all that trustworthy? The rationalism of a wise person may be, but not all people will arrive at the same reasoning. Indeed, rhetoric and debate likely originated with one wise leader trying to pursuade another to agree with the first's reasoning. Only perfect reason, and perfect rationality will always lead to the right course of action or behavior. But I submit that perfect passion would do the same. If Aristotle is correct, then it must be that imperfect reason is preferable to imperfect passion in creating law and governance. Of course, who am I to judge Aristotle?! For a multitude of other quotables attributed to Aristotle, read this Wikiquote page.