Former Seton Hall adjunct philosophy professor Marc Lamparello was arraigned in the New York Criminal Court Wednesday evening. Lamaparello charged with one felony count of attempted arson and one misdemeanor count of reckless endangerment. If found guilty, the charges carry a maximum sentence of 15 years to life in prison. Prosecutors also recommended Lamparello be held on a bond of $500,000 and surrendering of his passport. Additionally, the court ordered Lamparello undergo a psychiatric evaluation.Now, I've read Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics and didn't recall anything about burning down Cathedrals so I went back and did a quick Keyword search.
Lamaparello was taken into custody and later arrested by NYPD counterterrorism officers on April 17 after walking into St. Patrick’s Cathedral with gasoline cans. The incident occurred just two days after the devastating blaze that nearly destroyed the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.
In a press conference, NYPD Deputy Commissioner John Miller told reporters that Lamparello pulled up in a minivan near the cathedral around 8:00 p.m. He then proceeded to remove two 2-gallon gasoline cans, two butane lighters and two bottles of lighter fluid from the vehicle and proceeded to make his way up the church steps....MORE
Here's the W. D. Ross translation hosted at MIT.
Of course The Ethics were written in ~350 BCE so there's no comments on Cathedrals and the first gasoline pump wasn't manufactured until 1885 but still, if it were ethical you'd think Ari would have mentioned old-school accelerants like olive oil or something. Additionally there are only a handful of mentions of temples with the closest discussion to our topic being found in Book IV:
...Others again exceed in respect of taking by taking anything and from any source, e.g. those who ply sordid trades, pimps and all such people, and those who lend small sums and at high rates. For all of these take more than they ought and from wrong sources. What is common to them is evidently sordid love of gain; they all put up with a bad name for the sake of gain, and little gain at that. For those who make great gains but from wrong sources, and not the right gains, e.g. despots when they sack cities and spoil temples, we do not call mean but rather wicked, impious, and unjust....It appears Aristotle took a dim view of spoiling temples.
All of which reminds me,pimps, olive oil presses, MIT and the first financial derivatives!
Back in a bit.
