The Aristotelian Mean, or “moderation in all things,” that is found in the Nicomachean Ethics is defined as the middle ground between excess and deficiency. Granted Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics is viewed by many as an attempt to provide a teological explanation of Nature, that is to say Nature works toward an end goal. In the modern scientific age we live in, this is known to be erroneous. Nature is non-moral and completly bereft of “goals.” Thank you for demonstrating that to us, Mr. Darwin.
But the Nicomachean Ethics does contain that golden nugget of an idea “The Golden Mean of Behavior,” more completely presented yet loosely restated as moderation in all things, excess in none. That idea does not mean (yet is frequently misinterpreted and misunderstood to mean) that a person can take all things (particularly in re health) with moderation; therefore reasoning that a moderate amount of a bad thing can be indulged. Wrong!
Here’s how my idea of the Aristotelian Moderate Democrats and the philosphy for which they stand is correctly understood.
Instead, of believing that a little bit of a bad thing can’t hurt us, we should think more correctly about what Aristotelian Moderation truly means. We should understand, for example, that in the face of danger, courage is the happy median between the excess of foolhardiness and the deficiency of cowardice.
We can, and should, seek happiness as Aristotle believes is the true Good. That happiness is, in a sense, our goal. We achieve happiness, true Good through living in accordance with appropriate virtues, that is behaving in the right way for the right reasons. Even our own Declaration of Independence asserts that a goal of government should be to ensure that its citizens’ right to pursue happiness be protected.
Virtue, Aristotle teaches, is that mean state between excess and deficiency.
Remembering our example of courage, we can illustrate how one is a virtuous Moderate Aristotelian Democrat in the following. As Aritotelian Moderate Democrats, in our approach to social issues, legal, and moral ones, we should take the courageous, step, action, or position, but never either extreme.
And we should make these steps as private citizens and collectively as a nation, of our own volition. That is to say, without coercion, absent threat, free from fear.
In sum, an illustrative list of some of the virtues common to Aristotelian Moderate Democrats and how they should be understood:
Courage consists of confidence in the face of fear. Temperance consists of not giving in too easily to the pleasures of physical sensation. Liberality and magnificence consist of giving away varying amounts of money in appropriate and tasteful ways. Magnanimity and proper ambition consist of having the right disposition toward honor and knowing what is one’s due. Patience is the appropriate disposition toward anger. . .
Most importantly, Aristotelian Moderate Democrats seek justice in all things because justice encompasses all other virtues. Justice is of two varieties: distributive — distribution of wealth (and honor) according to earned merit; and rectificatory — creating a balance of equality among all people through law.
There are other beautiful virtues discussed in the Nicomachean Ethics, and I hope you already have a familiarity with them, or, it not, now have acquired a curiosity about them that will volitionally “drive” you toward reading the work by Aristotle.
Before going on about my Aristotelian Moderate Democratic life I have this to say to those who might try to impugn the idea with false charges of “it’s wishy-washy,” or it’s “weak.”
Caveat: Sometimes only a person with a bleeding heart has sufficient courage to do what the rest of us shy away from doing. And in times when governments adhere to wretched excesses of corruption and imperialism, the courageous position is misrepresented by that government and painted as the radical one. Always remember this, that in a democracy we must never make the mistake of accepting even a moderate amount of bad governance.
Please, let us all go on about our lives as virtuous Aristotelian Moderate Democrats.
[Author’s Note: This diary owes its “life” to shirlstars Remember Me?, which inspired me to comment. Which, in turn, inspired me to write this. Every writer should thank his/her Muse.
You can also find it at DailyKos and (soon?) at Political Cortex.]