Aristotle's Golden Mean: doctrine that right action lies in the middle
position between the extremes of excess and deficit.
"There are, then, three kinds of disposition- towards excess, towards
deficiency and the virtuous mean. Each is, in a sense opposed to the
others, as when the brave man seems rash to the coward, and cowardly
to the rash man. But the mean is not necessarily the middle, for
rashness is nearer to courage than is cowardice."
"It is not easy to be good, as it is no easy task to find the middle.
Even finding the middle of a circle takes skill."
"Anyone can get angry, or be generous, but to do so to the right
person, to the right extent, at the right time with the right motive
in the right way is not easy. It is best to aim at the mean by
avoiding the vice which most contrary to it, and guard against the
vices to which we are more inclined. Especially, we must guard against
pleasure, because pleasure cannot be judged impartially."
-- Aristotle
www.btinternet.com/~glynhughes/squashed/aristotle.htm
The Golden Mean: For every emotion, every desire or appetite, every
behavioral disposition, there is a corresponding moral virtue, as well
as moral vices. Virtues and vices are states of character. According
to Aristotle, emotions and desires have purposes with respect to the
whole person, but they fulfill these purposes only if they are felt at
the right time, in the right way, to the right degree. How you are
conditioned to feel and respond to life situations is your character.
This "right amount" of an emotion or desire is said to be the mean
between the extremes of excess and deficiency. Thus, for every feeling
you have, you can be virtuous (if your character is such that you feel
it in the appropriate way), or you can exhibit the vice of excess (too
much of the feeling) or the vice of deficiency (too little). For
example, with respect to anger there is the vice of short-temperedness
(excess), the vice of insensibility (deficiency) and the virtue of
even-temperedness. There is also a golden mean with respect to the
disposition to perform certain kinds of actions. For example, the
generous person has the virtue of being disposed to give away money in
a fitting way (neither too much or too little). Our rational soul,
when it is operating effectively, can tell through experience what is
fitting--but until our feeling and dispositions are aligned with what
reason dictates, we are not excellently rational.
http://philosophy.okstate.edu/reitan/OverviewofAristotle.htm
Aristotle's Golden Mean
http://faculty.db.erau.edu/schliepr/ethics/aristotle.html
Aristotle's Golden Mean of Midlife
http://www.bestyears.com/aristotlemean.html
