READING ARISTOTLE: ANCIENT THOUGHT FOR THE HERE AND NOW
Jennifer Whiting, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, is recognized as one of the most influential voices in the field of ancient philosophy. She stands out for the way she links current debates about the nature of friendship and personal identity to scholarly readings of Plato and Aristotle.
Much of Whiting’s work is inspired by Aristotle’s conception of the ideal friend as an “other self.” Many scholars, influenced by their readings of Aristotle as a rational egoist, read this concept as fundamentally egocentric: one’s friend is an extension of oneself. But Whiting resists this notion, both in itself and as a reading of Aristotle, because it involves a kind of “colonizing ego.”
In her view, Aristotle thinks that a person should love himself not because of who he is but on account of his virtuous character. Therefore, a virtuous person will love their “other self” in the same way, on account of her virtuous character. This idea yields what Whiting calls an ethocentric—or character-centered—view.
This view is not simply an academic debate—it also is relevant to our own daily lives. “The ethocentric ideal may help human beings overcome ethnocentric and other egocentric forms of bias that lead to various forms of injustice,” Whiting says.
Whiting’s interest in connecting ancient philosophy to modern issues is also evident in her department’s Open Doors Philosophy Academy, which provides support to students from groups underrepresented in academic philosophy who want to pursue a PhD in the field.
She also has worked—and seeks support to resume working—on Rhyme and Reason, a program aimed at helping high school students in underserved communities view the humanities and similar fields (such as law) as viable paths in higher education and their careers. This short-lived program’s capstone event was featured in the Pittsburgh Courier.
For 40 years, Whiting has been prodding students from all walks of life to engage in dialogue both with each other and with influential thinkers of the past. Her goal is to teach students to think outside of the boxes in which they were raised. This, she thinks, is the only hope we have for dealing with the problems we face today.