I got a tweet this morning that warmed my Aristotelian soul. Many of my students in the Fall 2009 Ancient Philosophy course did their creative projects on Aristotle’s Four Causes. (See Physics II.3 and Metaphysics A.3.) I did have some houses, hair cuts, music recordings,and martinis. But coffee won out. I wonder why? Well, next to IN-N-OUT burgers it’s the “food group” I talk about most often.

But this illustration takes the prize.

How to Brew a Good Cup of Coffee from Ben Helfen on Vimeo.

From the NY Times:

Dogs, it seems, are Aristotelians, but with their own doggy teleology. Their goals are not only radically different from ours; they are often invisible to us. To get a better view, Horowitz proposes that we humans get down intellectually on all fours and start sniffing.

Today was NOCRAP day. (Northern California Readers of Ancient Philosophy) That’s the “unofficial” name. It’s really the West Coast Aristotelian Society. It was founded about 30 years ago.

We used to meet every other month at UC Berkeley and Stanford, but now we just meet at Stanford. So there!

There’s almost always a wedding at Stanford Memorial Church on our NOCRAP Saturdays. The church ss in the middle of the main quad area and a long stone’s throw from where we meet in the Classics Department.

It was a odd day, weather-wise. We had thunderstorms in the Bay Area. Not hot, not muggy, not cool. Something in between them all.

We began the afternoon by remembering our recently deceased colleague, Julius Moravcsik,  who died this past June. It is a tremendous loss for us. I shall miss my Uncle Julius.

We read through Aristotle’s Metaphysics Book Mu, chapter 8 led ably by Henry Mendell . We then moved on to chapter 9, under the capable leadership of John Malcolm (now emeritus from UC Davis). I’m on tap to do Book Nu, chapter 1. Can’t wait! It’s got lots of relatives in it! Right up my alley!