Then onto matters philosophical, specifically Aristotle and his notion of the Golden Mean. This idea is drawn from the ancient Greek idea of μηδὲν ἄγαν (meden agan), doing nothing in life to excess. In the Nichomachean Ethics, Aristotle proposes that we should aim to tread this 'middle way', and explores the impact that this approach might have on our everyday actions. For example, in situations involving bravery, he argues, it's not a good idea to be too feisty, nor is cowardice helpful: instead, somewhere in the middle of the two lies courage. Here are all of Aristotle's 'golden means':
This 'extreme' (but honest!) person was guessed straight away! |
I realised after the session that I hadn't filled in a test myself, so in the spirit of fairness, here you are:
Next week is our mosaics workshop, so come prepared with a design that will fit in the template I gave out.