What is your ideology of excellence?

Question

It's a class essay and i think i get what the teacher is trying to say

Answer 1

Look up Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. The entire book is about this - the Metaphysics of Quality. Lila is a follow-on work by the same author, Robert Pirsig.

Answer 2

I personally think that Aristotle's account of Eudaimonia (which is the 'flourished' life) is one of the best of 'excellence'. It amounts to the virtuous life in accordance with reason. Aristotle tells us how virtues (which etymologically stems from the Greek for 'excellence') are essential to the happy life, and I have to say that they are central to my ideology of excellence too.

There is a balance, for Aristotle, between 'dianoetike' which are the intellectual virtues such as science, philosophy and contemplation (the latter, 'theoria', being the highest...) and then the 'ethike' virtues which are those moral ones of compassion, love, justice, fairness etc... The virtues require what he labels as 'phronesis' which amounts to 'practical knowledge'. This account of excellence then allows for intuition, natural intelligence, emotion, rationality and study. Any ideology of excellence which neglects either or all of these is a lesser one because of it.

I cannot recommend reading his Nicomacean Ethics enough and I challenge you not to agree with at least most of it!

Answer 3

Excellence is the best I can do under the current circumstances.  I can't do better than my best.  And it has no bearing on ideology.  It is not an idea but a practicallity.

Peace.

Answer 4

To excel means to be bigger, higher, faster, stronger, better than someone or something else. It is a competitive concept usually, and there is a lot of nonsense talked about it along the lines of: you should not start unless you mean to excel, only excellence is good enough - all that sort of thing. Mostly business and education people trying to big themselves up.

In real life not everyone can excel, nobody can excel at everything, and excellence isn't as important as these people think - not for getting along in life in a perfectly happy and normal way.

So, my ideology - though that is rather a grand word for it - goes roughly like this:

1) Be selective. If you even want to think about excelling at something - pick something that you enjoy and are quite good at

2) Be critical of your own ability. Don't give yourself grief by trying to excel at something that you can't excel at

3) But don't be hyper-critical. If someone whose judgment you trust tells you you are good at something, at least give them the chance to be right

4) Don't let anyone, and I mean anyone, tell you that you *must* excel at something. All that does is put pressure on you. Don't accept it.

5) Give due credit and admiration to those who do excel, but don't be jealous of them.

Blimey - I went on a bit there - sorry if that is too long or missed your point!

Answer 5

My philosophy of excellence is the pursuit of knowledge. Here, lies the path to greater understanding and behavior. Being open-minded, in search of greater truth, is excellent because it allows you to be more tolerant and sympathetic to others' views. You also become more interesting when you know a lot and can share information and opinions more abundantly with people. A person narrow and close-minded has less to share, more judgment to pass, and tremendous arrogance.  

Answer 6

so whats the question.

Answer 7

My idea of excellence is meeting the standards Aristotle called "qua."

What ever is the standard of the "perfect" this or that is its qua. (Perfection does not mean "free of mistakes." It means free of lax powers of thought, in the case of thinking.

In the case of a chicken, it means one that has only 1 head, 2 legs, and properly lays eggs.

"Qua" is different for each entity, whether metaphysical or empirical, but it is the standard which best describes that entity.

So a class paper qua paper would be one that meets or exceeds the requests of the teacher and the demands of the subject.