Aristotle taught that our lives were meant to be flourishing. His idea of the flourishing of life was to live a life of virtue. And virtue is the golden mean between deficiency and too much of something. Click on the link to learn about the way Aristotle advises us to live.

Aristotole's Golden Mean Notes


Aristotle talked about the "golden mean" between the extremes.  The table shows examples:



Excess(Vice)

Mean (Virtue)

Deficiency (Vice)

Fear & Confidence

Rashness

Courage

Cowardice

Conversation

Buffoonery

Wittiness

Boorishness

Shame

Shyness

Modesty

Shamelessness

Social Conduct

Obsequious

Friendly

Cantankerous

Self Expression

Boastfulness

Truthfulness

Understate

Attitude when others wrong you

Revenge & Resentment

Anger, forgiveness, understanding

Pushover, doormat

Attitude when you wrong others

Indifferent, downplay it, remorseless

Acknowledge, regret, make amends, forgive self

Toxic guilt & shame

Attitude toward self

Arrogance, conceit, egoism, narcissism, vanity

Pride & self-love

Self-deprecation


A habit is something is something that we repeatedly do, that becomes a disposition or a character trait.  A virtue is a habit that leads to flourishing; a vice, that diminishes flourishing.  The mean between the two extremes is where flourishing, thus virtue, is to be expected, and people will be drawn to it.  This does not label things as good or evil; it merely looks at whether it leads to flourishing or not.


Questions:

  • Can the Golden Mean guide actions like other ethical theories? No

  • Why is it harder to virtuous than viceful? Because there are two ways to be viceful, only one to be virtuous

  • How do we learn the virtues? Through practice, ideally as children; create good habits by repetition

  • Is there a mean for murder? No. This is all an approximation, after all; there are intrinsic evils

Is Aristotle an egoist, or a relativist, or …? No; he is a virtue theorist; a situationalist.

Last modified: Monday, June 22, 2020, 12:45 PM