Stagtine, 20. Rocks and Reason
Section 2, Chapter 4
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“What is the difference between a rock and a human?” asks a conservative college dean to his freshman class studying Aristotle’s Ethics.
“Speech,” returns one student, eager to impress.
“No, not speech exactly,” the dean returns. “Think deeper. What does Aristotle say?”
“Humans have knowledge because we understand, more fully, what it is to flourish,” answers another student.
“Better,” whispers the dean, looking off into the theoretical distance.
“This is what Aristotle calls ‘the good’” another answers.
“Good,” the dean responds. “This is good. But what is the highest good?”
The students fumble through their books that lay on the table in front of them. Some flip endlessly. Others flip to certain dog-eared pages that are nearly entirely dyed with their roommate’s neon, yellow highlighter. The room begins to sweat, as though the janitor, who is busily dusting the bookshelves in the back of the room, is playing with them, twisting the thermostat for fun.
“The good is itself desirable, only by itself, and for its own sake,” emits one student in the front of the class.
A general exhale releases a portion of the room’s heat and the students near the back of the room roll their eyes and pivot in their chairs. They are completely confused. They are nursing majors and their good is medicine—that which strives to save life and not to separate or define it.
“Yes, that is good,” the dean says as he reclines, placing his hands, now crossed, on his stomach. “So, what is the difference between a rock and a human?”
Silence. No one, not even the nurses in the back, dare to answer.
“Reason,” the dean asserts. “But it is time and class is done. We will continue this next week.”