“A master of any art avoids excess and defect, but seeks the intermediate and chooses this.” (Aristotle, 350 B.C.E.).
Today, I wish to write of those tortured geniuses who blur the world of forms and experience. Those exemplaries of the human condition. Those sisyphean champions who toil away ceaselessly at unraveling the divine order of things.
I speak, of course, of Professors who habitually come to class unprepared.
Unfortunately, these mortal messiahs are a much-maligned bunch, who come in for some very unfair criticism from students who are simply incapable of appreciating their true worth!
I believe myself equal to the task of launching their much-needed defense in the eyes of a frankly over-skeptical society.
Any and every sound logical argument must, of course, begin with a quote from Aristotle. Let me fulfill this logical ritual.
As Aristotle once said, to be virtuous is not an easy task. It is easier to miss the target than it is to hit it. This is why going wrong is easy, but going right is difficult.
Our habitually unprepared Professors stay true to much of Aristotle’s writings on what it means to live a virtuous life.
In many ways do they perfectly demonstrate the ‘Golden Mean’, of which that grand Old Man Aristotle was ever in search. Straddling the realms of excess and deficiency, our champions bravely walk the tightrope between categorical laziness and active teaching. Neither are they fully present in class, nor are they completely absent. They neither overwhelm students with excessive information, nor completely bore them with predictably excessive preparation.
They have mastered the understanding of balance. Of the middle. Of the mean.
In short, divine perfection.
We could even say, if we were to (God forbid!) be a little cheeky, that in being so diligent about their sloth, they break down age-old binaries and provide a complex, nuanced reading of Aristotle that is cutting-edge, and primed for the Postmodern times we live in.
In view of all of this, it is extremely puzzling to me how a student could be annoyed by these Philosopher Kings of Chaos, who rule the realms of unpredictable discussions.
Well, they showed up, didn’t they?!
If I may briefly take recourse to a shloka from the Gita to demonstrate this argument:
Vivikta-desha-sevitvam aratir jana-sansadi
adhyatma-jnana-nityatvam tattva-jnanartha-darshanam
etaj jnanam iti proktam ajnanam yad ato ’nyatha.
Or, I think that’s how it goes.
Anyway.
These Professors can also be understood to embody Aristotle’s teleological view of ethics. Their lack of preparation serves a higher purpose, one that is simply not capable of being understood by younger, less-developed intellects. They thus actively challenge students to critically introspect into the nature of reality, and find their own meaning. In this way, the Professor’s unpreparedness becomes a catalyst for the kindling of student autonomy and intellectual growth.
In fact, their very lack of preparation becomes a teachable moment in itself – instructing students in the virtue of adaptability, and the lost art of improvisation.
Aristotle’s concept of ‘Eudaimonia’, or flourishing, can suggest to us that Professors who arrive unprepared over and over again to class are in fact pursuing this state of bliss – one that comes from meticulously avoiding the unnecessary burdens of composing lists of readings and prior lesson planning! In doing so, they smartly nudge students towards questioning antique, outdated philosophical formulations like “academic rigour”, and throw themselves into redefining what it means to “flourish” in educational institutions funded by taxpayer money.
In fact, these Professors can also be said to have become torchbearers of a Dialectic of Disorganisation – able in an instant to foster a realistic, grounded dialogue where students must grapple with woefully incomplete, fragmentary concepts and ideas. This prepares the student for the real world, and for the true nature of the human condition – of having to piece together knowledge from scrappy fragments, all while constructing interpretive bridges which may or may not hold their weight.
A deeper understanding of life is thus delivered through such a collaborative chaos.
For it creates a very interesting learning atmosphere for students, who, quite honestly, should come to learn to appreciate its unique qualities! The wonder of the Aristotelian ‘Golden Mean’ lies in your pondering of all of the separate life decisions that led you to having to sit in that classroom, while also simultaneously having the inescapable feeling of having your soul slowly escape out of your behind.
It stands at the perfect crossroads between heaven and hell!
Indeed, Purgatory would be the best word to describe such an atmosphere.
And no, that’s not a bad thing at all. Purgatory is life, is it not? Purgatory is instructive, is it not?
I am one of the few who appreciate this complex lesson, and I bow down in deep appreciation of the prowess of its purveyors.
For what are these men but abstract, ethically consistent instruments of all of the Humanities themselves? These are virtuous men, reader.
Virtuous men.
Consistent in their ways. Each one of their ephemeral, rambling, “boring” classes delivering them (and us, too!) one step closer to an everlasting Enlightenment.
Thank you for reading this far.
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Catch my next article, where I vigourously ponder the philosophical intricacies of a hypothetical Professor failing a hypothetical class on attendance in the midst of a hypothetical pandemic!
Article 19 