Aristotle

This article is about GritCult's view of Aristotle. For a general overview, see Aristotle on Wikipedia.

Aristotle
“lesson from aristotle onassis: at 16 his city burned to the ground. the turks threw his father in prison.…” (25 April 2026)
In the archive
Portal	The Philosophers
Posts	63
Retweets	213
Likes	1,367
First post	24 January 2018
Latest post	25 April 2026
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Related
Plato Socrates Stoicism C.S. Lewis Camus

Aristotle is the philosopher GritCult studied hardest in his early years: 48 of his 63 Aristotle posts date from 2018. He called him probably his favourite philosopher and took two ideas from him above all, phronesis (practical wisdom) and the golden mean. After that year Aristotle shrinks to the occasional quote card.

Views

The serious engagement is a run of 2018 threads on ethics, during which he said that Aristotle was probably his favourite philosopher ^[1]. What he took from him was phronesis. Asking what makes an excellent character, he gave Aristotle's answer as 'living well. Practicality.' and presented the lesson as 'a rebuttal to the intellectual yet idiots' ^[2]. He was even willing to correct the master: Aristotle 'was wrong about sophia and phronesis', he argued, because in an age of abundant information 'sophia is easily available' while judgement stays scarce ^[3]. The threads read like a man assembling a personal operating system from the Nicomachean Ethics, complete with Greek terms and a pseudo-equation summing phronesis into eudaimonia.

The second idea is the golden mean. In a 2018 argument about IQ he suggested acknowledging intelligence 'but also advocate for the golden mean and the middle path like Aristotle advocated' ^[4]. His most-retweeted post about the philosopher, written in 2018 and reposted in 2021, warns against over-reliance on the intellect and concludes that 'one must cultivate all aspects of character, to be well rounded and moderated' ^[5]. Balance became his answer to arguments about diet, abstinence and pleasure. It sat comfortably beside his Stoicism: in one reply he pointed a questioner to Aristotle on balance and in the next breath described himself as 'a neo-stoic' ^[6].

Admiration never meant deference. He faulted Aristotle for fleeing Athens rather than face a sham trial that would, as with Socrates, have ended in his death, citing 'his lack of "skin in the game."' ^[7], a test he applied even to his favourite philosopher. After 2018 the engagement thins to a few capitalised quote cards a year, on friendship, desire and education. The best received, from 2023, is the line he attributes to Aristotle, 'WE ARE WHAT WE REPEATEDLY DO' ^[8], a fitting summary for a reader who always cared more about habit than theory. (The most-retweeted post the archive files under Aristotle concerns a namesake, Aristotle Onassis.)

Recurring themes

• phronesis over book learning
• the golden mean as a rule for living
• character built by habit
• practical wisdom against the intellectual yet idiot
• skin in the game, even for philosophers

Notable post

The most retweeted GritCult post on the subject, with 55 retweets:

Selected posts

All 63 posts in the archive about Aristotle, ranked by retweets. Select a column heading to sort.

Date	Retweets	Likes	Post	Media	Source
25 April 2026	55	604	lesson from aristotle onassis: at 16 his city burned to the ground. the turks threw his father in prison. his family lost everything they owned. he landed in argentina a refugee with $60 in his pocket, working the night shift at a telephone switchboard, selling tobacco during…		View
12 June 2018	38	174	Huxley knew, Nietzsche knew. over reliance on the intellect. too reliant, too myopic, narrowed in. technocratic Keynesian economists lent me to this view, against hubris one must cultivate all aspects of character, to be well rounded and moderated as aristotle referenced.		View
10 January 2023	20	95	WE ARE WHAT WE REPEATEDLY DO. EXCELLENCE, THEN, IS NOT AN ACT, BUT A HABIT. - ARISTOTLE		View
15 June 2021	14	59	Aristotle said that without friendship even if you had everything it would not be worth living		View
4 August 2021	13	67	Huxley knew, Nietzsche knew. over reliance on the intellect. too reliant, too myopic, narrowed in. technocratic Keynesian economists lent me to this view, against hubris one must cultivate all aspects of character, to be well rounded and moderated as aristotle referenced.		View
13 June 2018	6	19	THE HIGHEST GOOD Good is the aim of all action "Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and pursuit, is thought to aim at some good; and for this reason the good has rightly been declared to be that at which all things aim." - Aristotle		View
11 June 2018	5	30	Aristotle : Nicomachean Ethics Bk 2, Ch 1 "We become temperate by abstaining from pleasures, and at the same time we are best able to abstain from pleasures when we have become temperate. "		View
28 October 2018	5	14	Thus this is the benefit of aesthetics over the content of the ideology. We all know in order to create an aesthetic one must do something. This was emphasised by my thread on phronesis. This form of praxis can also extend to self view and heuristics.		View
18 June 2018	4	25	Greek word ethos => the word ethics literally means “character” One of Aristotle’s goal was to describe what qualities constitute an excellent character. Phronesis, was his answer, living well. Practicality. why learn this? as a rebuttal to the intellectual yet idiots (IYIs)		View
12 June 2018	4	18	feynman, hated authority and was highly creative. maybe we need to acknowledge IQ but also advocate for the golden mean and the middle path like Aristotle advocated.		View
12 October 2018	4	13	ive fallen back on aesthetics which is the subset of praxis as you need to "do" in order to fulfill said aesthetic many have also echoed a similar sentiment, of thinking too much is in the end just thinking and not enough, aristotle to arendt		View
23 July 2018	4	3	In his “Politics,” Aristotle rightly declares the household—together, the first communities of man and woman with man and beast— the foundation of society. As the household goes, so goes society from above source		View
26 June 2018	4	2	"Thus, the tyrant is inclined constantly to foment wars in order to preserve his own monopoly of power." —Aristotle, Politics bk v, xi (350 BCE) source:		View
21 August 2018	3	7	“The penalty for not participating in politics is to be governed by your inferiors” plato “man is a political animal” aristotle focus on self, but biologically bound to humanity see stoic cosmopolitanism see roman duty social capital = honest signal		View
15 July 2018	3	5	Aristotle's metaphysics: “All men by nature desire to know" Montaignes translation (mid fr => eng) : “No desire is more natural than the desire for knowledge.” Montaignes retort : "I study myself more than any other subject. That is my metaphysics; that is my physics."		View
3 February 2018	3	4	At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separate from law and justice, he is the worst. Aristotle		View
22 February 2018	2	16	Lord Tennyson, 1830, had a poem about the kraken. Saga of Örvar-Oddr 13th century icelandic tale. 1180 by King Sverre of Norway, the Kraken was just one of many sea monsters. so long in cultural history, even Aristotle aware octopi existed maybe not in the form of a kraken tho		View
18 September 2021	2	13	Aristotle said that without friendship even if you had everything it would not be worth living		View
20 June 2021	2	10	"BEING REPROACHED FOR GIVING TO AN UNWORTHY PERSON, ARISTOTLE SAID, 'I DID NOT GIVE IT TO THE MAN, BUT TO HUMANITY.' " - SAMUEL JOHNSON		View
13 June 2018	2	5	According to Aristotle pleasure is not the aim of every human action =>not every pleasure is good (highest good is intrinsically good) how it fits in with biology and egotistic altruism is that aiming for betterment of humanity, means improving it for successive generations		View
11 September 2018	2	5	“I will not allow the Athenians to sin twice against philosophy." -Aristotle and his lack of "skin in the game." he fled rather than face a sham trial of which like socrates, would be put to death. for expressing his ideas, thoughts and philosophy		View
14 June 2018	2	4	“The penalty for not participating in politics is to be governed by your inferiors” plato. “man is a political animal” aristotle		View
20 June 2018	2	3	but, here you are trying to bully me.... almost as if shaming bad behaviour, has social utility... "middle aged failure with no morals" to consider shaving off your own eyebrow as a "joke" is itself fucking dumb boyyy I could teach you bout morals, shall I start at Aristotle?		View
11 December 2020	1	17	"Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom." - Aristotle		View
25 October 2021	1	14	PHILOSOPHY IS THE SCIENCE WHICH CONSIDERS TRUTH. ARISTOTLE		View
7 October 2019	1	12	"It was their wonder, astonishment, that first led men to philosophize and still leads them." Aristotle.		View
10 April 2021	1	11	"HAPPINESS DEPENDS UPON OURSELVES." - ARISTOTLE		View
17 August 2018	1	8	Phronesis involves not only ability to decide how to achieve a certain end but also ability to reflect upon and determine good ends consistent with aim of living well overall many intellectuals yet idiots do not understand phronesis as espoused by Aristotle		View
16 February 2018	1	6	In islam usury, making money via interest, is considered unethical. Also Aristotle thought this too. As it allows money to grow without limit thus being unnatural.		View
2 August 2018	1	6	aristotle was wrong about sophia and phronesis, phroneses in a world of abundance thus becomes more important sophia is easily available ive learnt more off wikipedia than academia the lecture i went to yesterday, phd lecturer got stumped when i asked him a tough question		View
28 June 2018	1	5	"may lead to metabolic disturbance, loss of period, or osteoporosis" again i think this is when it is done to excess and like aristotle it is better to find optimal trade offs philosophy of virtue of balance shill here :		View
2 August 2018	1	5	X=telos=aim/purpose/overman telos=>arete/excellence. telos(man)=eudaimonia=happiness/flourishing eudaimonia=decisions∈practical wisdom ^decisions=>^progress, ^potential=>^flourish. In short ∴∑ phronesis=>path(eudaimonia[man])		View
2 February 2018	1	4	Quality is not an act, it is a habit. Aristotle		View
13 June 2018	1	2	i really fuck with Aristotle		View
9 September 2022	1	2	PHILOSOPHY IS THE SCIENCE WHICH CONSIDERS TRUTH. ARISTOTLE		View
12 June 2018	1	1	@The_WGD of course aristotle too, suggest something of a similar vein, the middle path too much abstinence turns men boorish, for they lose value of temperance, in chapter 1 same book		View
28 June 2018	1	0	@ALT_70V3 im not sure but if you want balance - see golden mean by aristotle he says virtue consists of balance personally im a neo-stoic only do if it serves a purpose also fits in with the heiracrhy of good ive derived from aristotle here :		View
17 October 2022	0	26	Plato or Socrates or Aristotle didn’t read any books. They just talked with people on long strolls. Vibed and wrestled. And debated with the bros at the Lyceum. They were the original shitposters.		View
4 October 2021	0	17	EDUCATING THE MIND WITHOUT EDUCATING THE DESIRES IS NO EDUCATION AT ALL. ARISTOTLE		View
2 August 2018	0	11	book smarts and street smarts also phronesis => leads to the other wisdoms in this age it is neglected thus it is needed, thus valued. why ? abundance of information and data, lack of wisdom and character too many are slaves to modernity & biology lack of (common) sense		View
22 November 2018	0	6	i made the same mistake, and i feel as though i am talking from experience in terms of self titles and residual self image, but look who in history we have called polymaths : aristotle newton da vinci avicenna its akin to calling yourself CAESAR		View
24 September 2021	0	5	"BEING REPROACHED FOR GIVING TO AN UNWORTHY PERSON, ARISTOTLE SAID, 'I DID NOT GIVE IT TO THE MAN, BUT TO HUMANITY.' " - SAMUEL JOHNSON		View
14 June 2018	0	3	value systems of goods and virtue aristotle, kant and more, building more on abstraction		View
18 June 2018	0	3	i feel Aristotle echoes this sentiment too, excessive prudence lends itself to dogmatic irrationality. ethics depend on circumstance, right place, right time, right people in the right way. the golden mean.		View
22 July 2018	0	2	been kinda mindless and sporadic today and trolling, i apologise. will provide decent threads soon. aesthetics, evolution of design, differences in types of wisdom, sophia and phronesis will also reply to my DMs, i see you guys waiting lol, i aint forget about u.		View
1 April 2018	0	1	for as it is not one swallow or one fine day that makes a spring, so it is not one day or a short time that makes a man blessed and happy'. Willl Durant (paraphrasing Aristotle)		View
6 June 2018	0	1	Herodotus, Xenophon or Aristotle ; the best to read regarding Sparta ?		View
13 June 2018	0	1	this touches upon notion of truth itself aristotle contended with sophists, or what now known as post-modernism can we quantify truth, why to understand something must we distill how it works ? if there is no truth, no empiricism would be needed. or am i being too cyclical ?		View
12 August 2018	0	1	@MrCasstles victor von doom (marvel) Ozymandias (watchmen) picard (trek) Lex Luthor (DC) newton aurelius/seneca Aristotle Cromwell (both) father (diligence) maternal uncle (religiosity) business mentors, i worked for (creative/first principles) karate sensei (discipline/confidence)		View
17 August 2018	0	1	@cognazor @0x49fa98 @gxdarz @MimeticValue @Via_Benjamin @mindless1729 @yungdeleuze @ThouArtThat @krumbbumm @JordanTSack @mmay3r @mistermircea to create works that are bound by time, defeats the purpose of those works being timless upon more reflection time frames, did not stop aristotle from being relevant today		View
17 August 2018	0	1	@0x49fa98 @MimeticValue i derive more from what aristotle seeks to understand as ontology it comes down to function dogs are not human but some are treated better than humans because they have human like traits and elicit empathy in some ergo they share our humanity		View
24 January 2018	0	0	A man can make up his mind quickly, if he has only a little to make up. Aristotle		View
16 February 2018	0	0	I think Aristotle saw money as nothing more than a means of exchange. The greeks considered deeply the notion of limits. Thus unlimited goods were needed for a good flourishing life.		View
25 February 2018	0	0	sources/inspo : aristotle, peter theil in his book talks about equity better long term		View
23 June 2018	0	0	pluralist myself does not disavow my reasoning capabilities to say one way of life is better than others you can do this by seeing what are the implications of that lifestyle and biological implications and infer costs and benefits see aristotle:		View
24 July 2018	0	0	@oldben15 or fascist dictator advocate depends on your reading of plato but if youre familiar with my threads on Aristotle you will know he is probably my favourite philosopher		View
16 August 2018	0	0	@seunn99 behaviorism, associationism, psychoanalysis, social psychology, and structuralism stems from Plato and Aristotle especially with memories carried on by John Locke, David Hume, David Hartley, and James Mill memory, learning, and the study of neural pathways shoemaker....		View
17 August 2018	0	0	@AgnusUltraXRP woah bro, this was very graphic going to make me relapse dopamine hacking motivation shredding but im not sure pure blue balls celibacy is that great either like Aristotle I advocate balance fast => indulge T levels decline after too long		View
21 August 2018	0	0	@hughes71archie1 book thread here : for similar time period these two are good also for older authors, some of their ideas get rehashed and the newer stuff is a better intro not too meaty, easy incline id also recommend reading summaries of aristotle		View
13 October 2018	0	0	@warm_horizons @authorpaulhunt Yeah I'm just doing reading on it. It may be a while before thoughts that are drifting in the ether become crystallised even then I'll probably change or update. And since scaling I've been hesitant to just spitball like I used to. Fits in with my work on phronesis and aristotle		View
29 November 2018	0	0	@Mayman10 @aglawamba Read more Aristotle ! He most definitely distinguished races. And argued which ones were better at particular things. Also this quote : Cc: @cursedsalad		View
29 November 2018	0	0	@Mayman10 @aglawamba @cursedsalad They did have racial concepts. I just showed you how. Ethnicity is a subset of race. Stop trying to be revisionist, and be first principles. The stoics would teach you that. Aristotle was also "sexist" and believed that slavery was natural.		View
9 May 2021	0	0	@DavidSHolz @PresentWitness_ You can’t say that he’s dead. That’s like saying Aristotle would’ve never have made a twitter account.		View

History

GritCult first posted about Aristotle on 24 January 2018, and most recently on 25 April 2026. Across the archive the subject comes up 63 times, most often in 2018 (48 posts).

See also

The Philosophers portal

References

1. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (24 July 2018). you will know he is probably my favourite philosopher. X.
2. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (18 June 2018). Phronesis, was his answer, living well. Practicality. ... as a rebuttal to the intellectual yet idiots. X.
3. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (2 August 2018). aristotle was wrong about sophia and phronesis ... sophia is easily available. X.
4. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (12 June 2018). but also advocate for the golden mean and the middle path like Aristotle advocated. X.
5. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (12 June 2018). one must cultivate all aspects of character, to be well rounded and moderated as aristotle referenced. X.
6. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (28 June 2018). personally im a neo-stoic. X.
7. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (11 September 2018). and his lack of "skin in the game.". X.
8. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (10 January 2023). WE ARE WHAT WE REPEATEDLY DO. EXCELLENCE, THEN, IS NOT AN ACT, BUT A HABIT. X.

External links

• Posts about Aristotle by GRITCULT on X
• Aristotle on Wikipedia