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Single Idea 3545

[filed under theme 23. Ethics / C. Virtue Theory / 2. Elements of Virtue Theory / f. The Mean ]

Full Idea

The doctrine of the mean claims that virtues are not the polar opposites of vices, but rather stand between two vices which are opposed.

Gist of Idea

The mean implies that vices are opposed to one another, not to virtue

Source

report of Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics [c.334 BCE], 1104a13) by Julia Annas - The Morality of Happiness 2.2

Book Ref

Annas,Julia: 'The Morality of Happiness' [OUP 1995], p.60

A Reaction

I'm not sure about that. If the two extremes of courage are cowardice and recklessness, how are those two opposed to one another?

The 26 ideas with the same theme [virtues as appropriate route between evils]:

7359 Excess and deficiency are equally at fault [Kongzi (Confucius)]
20917 Contentment comes from moderation and proportion in life [Democritus, by Stobaeus]
305 Something which lies midway between two evils is better than either of them [Plato]
281 The arts produce good and beautiful things by preserving the mean [Plato]
3545 The mean implies that vices are opposed to one another, not to virtue [Aristotle, by Annas]
47 Virtues are destroyed by the excess and preserved by the mean [Aristotle]
4406 Aristotle aims at happiness by depressing emotions to a harmless mean [Nietzsche on Aristotle]
60 The mean is relative to the individual (diet, for example) [Aristotle]
61 Skills are only well performed if they observe the mean [Aristotle]
4388 One drink a day is moderation, but very drunk once a week could exhibit the mean [Urmson on Aristotle]
4387 In most normal situations it is not appropriate to have any feelings at all [Urmson on Aristotle]
62 We must tune our feelings to be right in every way [Aristotle]
5159 The mean is always right, and the extremes are always wrong [Aristotle]
65 The vices to which we are most strongly pulled are most opposed to the mean [Aristotle]
5161 To make one's anger exactly appropriate to a situation is very difficult [Aristotle]
5235 Patient people are indignant, but only appropriately, as their reason prescribes [Aristotle]
5238 The sincere man is praiseworthy, because truth is the mean between boasting and irony [Aristotle]
23914 People sometimes exhibit both extremes together, but the mean is contrary to both of them [Aristotle]
2829 The law is the mean [Aristotle]
21395 One of Zeno's books was 'That Which is Appropriate' [Zeno of Citium, by Long]
3049 The chief good is indifference to what lies midway between virtue and vice [Ariston, by Diog. Laertius]
20848 An appropriate action is one that can be defended, perhaps by its consistency. [Stoic school, by Diog. Laertius]
7453 Galen's medicine followed the mean; each illness was balanced by opposite treatment [Galen, by Hacking]
21417 How do we distinguish a mean? The extremes can involve quite different maxims [Kant]
21420 If virtue is the mean between vices, then virtue is just the vanishing of vice [Kant]
20372 The instinct of the herd, the majority, aims for the mean, in the middle [Nietzsche]