186 ARISTOTLE
self-controlled man seems self-indulgent in relation to an insensitive man and insen-
sitive in relation to a self-indulgent man, and a generous man extravagant in relation
to a stingy man and stingy in relation to an extravagant man. This is the reason why
people at the extremes each push the man in the middle over to the other extreme: a
coward calls a brave man reckless and a reckless man calls a brave man a coward, and
similarly with the other qualities.
However, while these three dispositions are thus opposed to one another, the
extremes are more opposed to one another than each is to the median; for they are fur-
ther apart from one another than each is from the median, just as the large is further
removed from the small and the small from the large than either one is from the equal.
Moreover, there appears to be a certain similarity between some extremes and their
median, e.g., recklessness resembles courage and extravagance generosity; but there is
a very great dissimilarity between the extremes. But things that are furthest removed
from one another are defined as opposites, and that means that the further things are
removed from one another the more opposite they are.
In some cases it is the deficiency and in others the excess that is more opposed
to the median. For example, it is not the excess, recklessness, which is more opposed
to courage, but the deficiency, cowardice; while in the case of self-control it is not
the defect, insensitivity, but the excess, self-indulgence which is more opposite. There
are two causes for this. One arises from the nature of the thing itself: when one of
the extremes is closer and more similar to the median, we do not treat it but rather the
other extreme as the opposite of the median. For instance, since recklessness is
believed to be more similar and closer to courage, and cowardice less similar, it is
cowardice rather than recklessness which we treat as the opposite of courage. For
what is further removed from the middle is regarded as being more opposite. So much
for the first cause which arises from the thing itself. The second reason is found in
ourselves: the more we are naturally attracted to anything, the more opposed to the
median does this thing appear to be. For example, since we are naturally more
attracted to pleasure we incline more easily to self-indulgence than to a disciplined
kind of life. We describe as more opposed to the mean those things toward which our
tendency is stronger; and for that reason the excess, self-indulgence, is more opposed
to self-control than is its corresponding deficiency.- How to Attain the Mean:Our discussion has sufficiently established (1) that
moral virtue is a mean and in what sense it is a mean; (2) that it is a mean between two
vices, one of which is marked by excess and the other by deficiency; and (3) that it is a
mean in the sense that it aims at the median in the emotions and in actions. That is why
it is a hard task to be good; in every case it is a task to find the median: for instance, not
everyone can find the middle of a circle, but only a man who has the proper knowledge.
Similarly, anyone can get angry—that is easy—or can give away money or spend it; but
to do all this to the right person, to the right extent, at the right time, for the right reason,
and in the right way is no longer something easy that anyone can do. It is for this reason
that good conduct is rare, praiseworthy, and noble.
The first concern of a man who aims at the median should, therefore, be to avoid
the extreme which is more opposed to it, as Calypso advises: “Keep clear your ship of
yonder spray and surf.” For one of the two extremes is more in error than the other, and
since it is extremely difficult to hit the mean, we must, as the saying has it, sail in the
second best way and take the lesser evil; and we can best do that in the manner we have
described.
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