Aristotle discusses several emotions throughout chapters 2 through 11 of Book 2 and "how they may be produced or dissipated, and upon which depend the persuasive arguments connected with the emotions" (Aristotle 83). The emotions he presents are all presented as opposites, as in Fear and Confidence. For the most part, Aristotle's distinctions seem to make a lot of intuitive sense; for example, fear and confidence are two distinctively contrasting emotions that would be difficult to mix-up. However, Aristotle's distinction between Envy and Emulation are less convincing. Aristotle defines Envy as "a pain at the sight of such good fortune as consists of the good things already mentioned; we feel it towards our equals; not with the idea of getting something for ourselves, but because the other people have it" (Aristotle 81). Emulation, on the other hand, is "pain caused by seeing the presence, in persons whose nature is like our own, of good things that are highly valued and are possible for ourselves to acquire; but it is felt not because others have these goods, but because we have not got them ourselves" (Aristotle 82). Aristotle further distinguishes between Envy and Emulation in that "Emulation makes us take steps to secure the good things in question, envy makes us take steps to stop our neighbour having them" (Aristotle 83).
It seems to me that Aristotle's definitions of these two emotions aren't very good, at least considering a modern audience; when I am envious of someone, I feel it not only because other people have a good thing but also because I want it for myself. While envy might make me try to prevent someone from having the thing I want, say by telling a friend a certain toy is sold out when I really want it for myself, it would also make me want to "secure the good things" as well. I would also be hesitant to call Emulation as a painful emotion, since it seems to me that in feeling emulation I feel like I'm aspiring to better things, which in turn makes me feel happy. I'm curious as to whether it might be better to consider Emulation as a type of Envy; that is, a person might be envious of a particular quality of a person but may not necessarily try to emulate him/her. Maybe the two are too closely connected to separate cleanly like Aristotle does. After all, don't most commercials simultaneously arouse envy and emulation in us by making us want their product so that we can be like the cool person using said product on TV?
It was presented to me as I was reading that section that the distinguishing factor between envy and emulation was that, plainly speaking, good men emulated, and bad men envied. I thought you captured that well. But what seems to differ here is the connotation of the feeling. I think this is brought out by: "Emulation makes us take steps to secure the good things in question, envy makes us take steps to stop our neighbor from having them." The sense inherent to "emulation" conveys an action, trying to accomplish something, while "envy" seems a more cerebral activity. That transitive aspect of the emulation makes the tv commercial example problematic for me, but I do agree that when looking at his other dichotomies, this is not an exact split.
ReplyDeleteSomething also I think, is that Aristotle here is supposing two groups, good men and bad men, who only do good and bad things respectively. What about a person who has grown up as a thief, and emulates the actions of a better thief in a classic mentor relationship. Is that person not learning a bad skill through emulation?
I think what Aristotle is going for here in Envy is not so much the idea of just having the thing, it is the concept of having the thing and being able to show it off. For instance, if someone else has something that others desire but do not have, if that someone is of a certain type there are quite a few ego based benefits that go along with that. If you emulate someone and get what they have, you become equals. If you envy someone and want what they have without them having it any more and succeed, you place yourself in a state of superiority to them. This ties in to what Stewart said about good men emulating, bad men envying, as the distinction here is really about character.
ReplyDeleteI'm going off of what Sean said about your post. I'm not sure if I read into it thinking that envy is having something and being able to show it off or more so, the other person seeing that thing you have and wishing they had it for themselves. Envy and emulation definitely confused me because they seemed closely related, but Aristotle ties all these emotions to having power/superiority over others, or at least I feel that way.
ReplyDeleteAre these emotions used to get what we want so others don't have it? Or to stop others from having the things we want, but can't have? Or maybe to just have some prize or medal that shows we are wealthier or higher in class?