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Single Idea 4388
[filed under theme 23. Ethics / C. Virtue Theory / 2. Elements of Virtue Theory / f. The Mean
]
Full Idea
The doctrine of the mean does not require the doctrine of moderation: if I say we should drink lots of alcohol once a week, but you propose a little each day, your view is more in line with moderation, but we can agree on the doctrine of the mean.
Gist of Idea
One drink a day is moderation, but very drunk once a week could exhibit the mean
Source
comment on Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics [c.334 BCE], 1106b16) by J.O. Urmson - Aristotle's Doctrine of the Mean p.162
Book Ref
'Essays on Aristotle's Ethics', ed/tr. Rorty,Amélie Oksenberg [University of California 1980], p.162
A Reaction
So two people could agree on the doctrine, but end up behaving differently. This is important for virtue theory. In a moral dilemma there might be several right things that could be done.
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]
|