Quotation
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“Virtue is a state concerned with choice, lying in a mean relative to us, this being determined by reason.”
Aristotle · Aristotelianism · Ancient · c. 340 BCE
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading is that moral virtue is a settled state of choosing the mean relative to the agent, as reason directs, not a mathematical midpoint. A competing reading says that without the dropped clause about practical wisdom the definition looks like moderation in everything, including things Aristotle says admit of no mean. The sentence is the formal definition in Ethics II.6, after the discussion of excess and deficiency. Courage, for example, sits between rashness and cowardice, and the 'where' depends on the person.
Did Aristotle really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. A shortened English of the definition of moral virtue in Nicomachean Ethics II.6. W. D. Ross's translation continues: the mean is determined by the principle by which the person of practical wisdom would determine it.
Where it comes from
Nicomachean Ethics II.6, 1106b36–1107a2
Approximate date: c. 340 BCE.
How to use it
Generosity about a colleague's leaving collection is not 'somewhere in the middle' of any sum. It depends on your pay, their situation, and what else the month requires. Too little is stingy and too much, if it is showing off, misses in the other direction, and the mean is relative to you, and a formula that ignores the case is not what he defined.
A mindset reading
The habit is to look for the two ways a response can miss, and then to ask what reason would pick in this case. A mean is not a compromise between other people's demands. It is the excellent amount, and finding it is the work of judgement, not of splitting the difference.
Understand the philosophy
Aristotle is answering what moral virtue is, after arguing that it is acquired by habit. A state, hexis, is a settled condition, not a single burst of feeling. The mean relative to us is his key phrase: not the midpoint of the object, but the right amount for this person, chosen with reason. The full sentence names practical wisdom as the reason that determines it, and leave that out and the doctrine becomes a plea for blandness.
- virtue
- ethics
FAQ
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading is that moral virtue is a settled state of choosing the mean relative to the agent, as reason directs, not a mathematical midpoint. A competing reading says that without the dropped clause about practical wisdom the definition looks like moderation in everything, including things Aristotle says admit of no mean. The sentence is the formal definition in Ethics II.6, after the discussion of excess and deficiency. Courage, for example, sits between rashness and cowardice, and the 'where' depends on the person.
Did Aristotle really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. A shortened English of the definition of moral virtue in Nicomachean Ethics II.6. W. D. Ross's translation continues: the mean is determined by the principle by which the person of practical wisdom would determine it.
Which work is it in?
Nicomachean Ethics II.6, 1106b36–1107a2 Approximate date: c. 340 BCE.