Phronesis, Rhetoric, and Jake Sully

                After reading the articles and sections for today, I knew what I wanted to discuss but it took me awhile to find an object to relate it to. Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics and Barbara Warnick’s “Judgment, Probability, and Aristotle’s Rhetoric,” discuss Aristotle’s five intellectual virtues. Both Aristotle and Warnick focus part of their discussion on phronesis, or practical wisdom. Aristotle explains that phronesis produces a virtuous life or a well-ordered state. He states that in order to possess phronesis, a man must have wisdom that “is concerned not only with universals but with particulars, which become familiar from experience.” (Aristotle, Ethics, 148) As well as this, he must also “be of firm and unchangeable moral character.” (Warnick, 306) The action that is produced from phronesis is virtuous because it comes from someone that is virtuous.

                I believe Jake Sully, from Avatar, is one that possesses phronesis. Though Jake might not be as old as Aristotle would have wanted, I think, by the end of the movie, he is someone with good moral character and experience. Since he is of military background, he knows what the Sky People are capable of and what they will do. He becomes one of the Na’vi and adopts their morals which are presented as the right ones in the movie. When the Sky People come to tear down the home tree, he knows exactly what they plan to do. He realizes that many of the Na’vi will die and he wants to save them. He however fails to convince them to flee. They call him a traitor and tie him up outside.

(Image shows Jake Sully tied up as the Na'vi watch the Sky People about to destroy home tree. Couldn't find videos - sorry!)

 

                Why does he fail? I believe it is because he did not employ his techne – rhetoric. Warnick states that “phronesis is realized most assuredly in human affairs when reasons are given and considered about how and why one is obligated to act, to choose or avoid one course of action over another. In considering the merits of alternative courses of action, rhetoric plays a significant role.” (Warnick, 306) Rhetoric becomes Jake Sully’s tool in order for him to apply his practical wisdom and achieve the right and good action. In the first example, Jake Sully fails to create an argument that produces a good ending.

                However, a few scenes later, he is able to rally the people into acting which ultimately leads to the Sky People’s defeat. What changes? Warnick describes 3 senses of probability that is used by rhetoric. Jake Sully applies 2 of them successfully. He is able to use his techne to observe “the means available and considering how best to use them to promote virtue” in this particular situation. (Warnick, 304) Before, the Na’vi did not think that their home tree could be destroyed. But when he speaks to them afterwards, they know the destructive power of the Sky People and realize that it could happen again. It becomes an actual likelihood. Jake Sully also plays on the beliefs of the Na’vi by using “what the audience…accepts or takes as true.” (Warnick, 307) There is a legend among the Na’vi, that the rider of the Toruck (the large red bird) is a man of great prestige and a leader. Jake Sully becomes the Toruck Macto (the rider) in order to gain respect and attention. Because he is now the Toruck Macto, they must listen to him and revere him. He doesn’t have to explain why this position is powerful; the people already know these premises. Jake Sully uses these premises in order to create an argument that “can be applied by phronesis to produce right action” – to fight and remove the Sky People from the planet. (Warnick, 309)    

(Image below shows Jake as Toruk Makto.)