Aristotle was a Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great who was born about 384 BC about 90 odd years before Archimedes.
Now the whole western mind we owe to the Greek line of thinking and in a way it has made us goal orientated and far too linear.
The strange thing is that although Archimedes was Greek and a mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor, and astronomer, he is remembered most for his saying, “Eureka.”
When he had found out how to determine the weight of something by the displacement of water in his bath, he was so astounded by his accidental discovery he ran naked into the streets shouting “Eureka, Eureka,” all over his city.
The thing is that life is so vast that there are areas where you also may be the first to discover something of real value.
Although Aristotle was a philosopher he paved the way for metaphysics as he wrote a treatise on philosophy and in his book wrote a chapter also on physics, but because the chapter on physics came after the chapter on philosophy it was called metaphysics.
Everyone remembers from school the theory of the “Archimedes principle” and this was a right brain discovery, not a left brain one.
The Aristotelian approach has ruled the western world so long we have forgotten about the reason we all strive so much for “the goal.” And our ambitions and all our goals for the future are based to a large extent on this approach towards life/death, good/bad, right/wrong, success/failure, night/ day and never any shades of grey.
It is no wonder that the poor children of to-day are so confused that they think they have to get it right straight away and then continue on to the grave and succeed at all costs. The suicide rate of teenagers is so shocking that a new approach needs to be embraced, but this can more easily be introduced within the family, of course.
The problem is exacerbated when the same children become disillusioned with their parents’ values that they drop out and do nothing creative at all; a real dilemma. There appears to be no middle road and it is only the really sensitive souls who will ever manage to find some sort of balance in their lives.
The rest will either be rewarded for succeeding even if what they achieve is only their parents’ dreams largely unfulfilled or they will fail and nurse that wound for life. I am not sure which is worse.
If these children can become disciples of life and see it as a mystery to be lived rather than a problem to be solved much misery will vanish from their lives and much pressure taken of their poor little necks.
They will need very enlightened parents indeed.
Image Credit: Unsplash.com/Katie Chase
Chris Borrett