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Single Idea 305
[filed under theme 23. Ethics / C. Virtue Theory / 2. Elements of Virtue Theory / f. The Mean
]
Full Idea
Something which is composed of two factors which are bad for different purposes and lies midway between them is better than either of the factors.
Gist of Idea
Something which lies midway between two evils is better than either of them
Source
Plato (Euthydemus [c.379 BCE], 306a)
Book Ref
Plato: 'Early Socratic Dialogues', ed/tr. Saunders,Trevor J [Penguin 1987], p.374
The
26 ideas
with the same theme
[virtues as appropriate route between evils]:
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7359
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Excess and deficiency are equally at fault
[Kongzi (Confucius)]
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20917
|
Contentment comes from moderation and proportion in life
[Democritus, by Stobaeus]
|
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305
|
Something which lies midway between two evils is better than either of them
[Plato]
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281
|
The arts produce good and beautiful things by preserving the mean
[Plato]
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3545
|
The mean implies that vices are opposed to one another, not to virtue
[Aristotle, by Annas]
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47
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Virtues are destroyed by the excess and preserved by the mean
[Aristotle]
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4406
|
Aristotle aims at happiness by depressing emotions to a harmless mean
[Nietzsche on Aristotle]
|
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60
|
The mean is relative to the individual (diet, for example)
[Aristotle]
|
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61
|
Skills are only well performed if they observe the mean
[Aristotle]
|
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4388
|
One drink a day is moderation, but very drunk once a week could exhibit the mean
[Urmson on Aristotle]
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4387
|
In most normal situations it is not appropriate to have any feelings at all
[Urmson on Aristotle]
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62
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We must tune our feelings to be right in every way
[Aristotle]
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5159
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The mean is always right, and the extremes are always wrong
[Aristotle]
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65
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The vices to which we are most strongly pulled are most opposed to the mean
[Aristotle]
|
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5161
|
To make one's anger exactly appropriate to a situation is very difficult
[Aristotle]
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5235
|
Patient people are indignant, but only appropriately, as their reason prescribes
[Aristotle]
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5238
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The sincere man is praiseworthy, because truth is the mean between boasting and irony
[Aristotle]
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23914
|
People sometimes exhibit both extremes together, but the mean is contrary to both of them
[Aristotle]
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2829
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The law is the mean
[Aristotle]
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21395
|
One of Zeno's books was 'That Which is Appropriate'
[Zeno of Citium, by Long]
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3049
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The chief good is indifference to what lies midway between virtue and vice
[Ariston, by Diog. Laertius]
|
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20848
|
An appropriate action is one that can be defended, perhaps by its consistency.
[Stoic school, by Diog. Laertius]
|
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7453
|
Galen's medicine followed the mean; each illness was balanced by opposite treatment
[Galen, by Hacking]
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21417
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How do we distinguish a mean? The extremes can involve quite different maxims
[Kant]
|
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21420
|
If virtue is the mean between vices, then virtue is just the vanishing of vice
[Kant]
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20372
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The instinct of the herd, the majority, aims for the mean, in the middle
[Nietzsche]
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