Ancient Political Theory: Comparison Of Forrest Gump And Hans Landa

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PLS 325 Ancient Political Theory
Dr. Shu-Shan Lee
Sagynysh Yeltayeva
December 11, 2015
Term Paper #2
Practical wisdom of hero and a villain: comparison of Forrest Gump from the film “Forrest Gump” and Hans Landa from the film “Inglorious basterds” Aristotle in his compilation of books “Ethics” described his perception of happiness, which lies in the exercise of the virtues. He describes rational and irrational part of the human soul. Irrational part consists of virtues of character, developed through habit. Rational one is further divided into invariable and variable parts. Invariable part of rational side of soul is concerned with knowledge which is eternal, such as mathematics. Variable one is busy with human action and is responsible for application of virtue to life situations. In other words, how a person can behave to make the situation right. This is a rough definition of practical wisdom . Such determination of practical wisdom pushed me to choose these iconic cinema characters, as each of them, at first sight, can be told to have a practical wisdom. Forrest Gump applied his good upbringing and skills to run fast and concentrate on the task towards living well, that led to him finally getting mutual love of Jenny. Hans Landa worked for the Third Reich without true commitment to its ideology, but applying all his skills towards completing his job effectively. Due to his sharp mind and analysis of the current situation, he came up with idea to make a deal with