I have finished listening to a series of six tapes, a twelve lecture series on the philosophy of Aristotle.  You must be careful when either experiencing or accepting the notion that what you are “learning” from the tapes is exactly the philosophy of the philosopher, Aristotle.  When learning from any book, tape of lectures or from professors and teachers in general, you are not dealing with the original but with one of the successors who make their own interpretations and give you a filtered version. You must consider the source of what you are hearing.  Most courses, either in the classroom or on these recorded tapes, tell you about original sources and the other “experts” who have already pontificated on the subject.

This particular series of lectures on tape is about The Ethics of Aristotle and, as I explained earlier, the teacher used the Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle as the basis for his explaining a Greek Philosopher from about two thousand five hundred years ago. Understanding what is being taught here is better grasped when you see that Aristotle is filtered through the education of and experiences that shaped the teacher, Joseph Kotenski, S.J., of Fordham University.  I am laying this out in this way fully cognizant that when I taught in teacher school the philosophy of and the methods of teaching were filtered through my own experience.

I have been taught mainly in secular schools.  These were public elementary, secondary, colleges and universities.  They have a non-sectarian approach although some of my teachers and professors displayed strong natural biases towards some particular educational or philosophical training. One of the subjects I was required to take in order to earn a principal’s license and certification of having studied the management of higher education, was given at Seton Hall University in Orange, New Jersey.  This is a Catholic educational institution and I have never gotten over the requirement of all the adult students, teachers and administrators, having to stand for a prayer to start each class. There was, of course, the figure of a crucified Jesus hanging on the wall behind the professor.

What I am trying to impart here is that the several professors who have taught me various subjects, their examples were drawn from their own experiences and those who were educated in parochial institutions showed their biases as surely as I showed mine as a public school educand. Aristotle was presented through the filter and history of the Catholic Church and the bias was to what the Church Fathers made of him in order to reduce a pagan philosophy into acceptable form.

Professor Kotenski, a Jesuit scholar, is an excellent lecturer.