Clean Up Operation -- Feel Free to Skip This Post

I'll tell you how I like to deal with the problem I presented in my last post, and then I'll move on.

It's a real problem-- since surely the etymology of the word akolasia never was marked out in a diagram anywhere earlier.

This is a fairly fine-grained point, and I don't imagine that many of you have an interest in this that would compel you to work through the details. I'm presenting these remarks today simply for the sake of completeness.

Here's my way of marking out what is going on (see below). The lines highlighted in green represent those that I think belong to the original and primary discussion of the passage; the lines highlighted in yellow represent what I think is an interpolation and digression. That they are an interpolation is, I think, clear from the fact that περὶ ἡδονάς τινας καὶ λύπας εἰσί (b10) refers back to σωφροσύνης καὶ ἀκολασίας in the first line of the passage.

In my view, the content of the phrase, τὴν ἀκολασίαν ὀνομάζοντες μεταφέρομεν, belongs at the point of the red caret mark, because the metaphorical usage of the term akolasia is actually explained by the phrase ὥσπερ οἱ παῖδες· κατὰ ταύτην γὰρ ἀκόλαστοι λέγονται τὴν ἀκολασίαν, viz. the term akolasia is originally used of children, because they are the ones for who it is most obviously true that they are 'undiscplined' in the sense of "undisciplined, when they might have been 'cured' had they been disciplined"--and it's in accordance with akolasia used in this sense, that the vice is named (κατὰ ταύτην γὰρ ἀκόλαστοι λέγονται τὴν ἀκολασίαν).

I don't see quite (yet) the exact form that the words τὴν ἀκολασίαν ὀνομάζοντες μεταφέρομεν would have taken before they were displaced (and maybe you have ideas?). Nevertheless, it seems clear that the content of those words belongs at the point of the caret mark.

A small point: you may think that διεγράψαμεν δὲ πρότερον πῶς is awkward; and I would agree. Yet the construction is not unbelievable as referring back to διακεῖσθαί πως, because that phrase is a stock phrase which stands for something pointed out in connection with virtues and vices but needing further specification (see πρὸς δὲ τούτοις κατὰ μὲν τὰ πάθη κινεῖσθαι λεγόμεθα, κατὰ δὲ τὰς ἀρετὰς καὶ τὰς κακίας οὐ κινεῖσθαι ἀλλὰ διακεῖσθαί πως, NE 1106a5-6), and the EE author just conceivably thinks of the chart of virtues and vices as going a long way toward providing that sort of specification.

περὶ δὲ σω-
φροσύνης καὶ ἀκολασίας μετὰ ταῦτα διελέσθαι πειρα-
τέον. λέγεται δ' ὁ ἀκόλαστος πολλαχῶς. ὅ τε γὰρ μὴ κε-
κολασμένος πως μηδ' ἰατρευμένος, ὥσπερ ἄτμητος ὁ μὴ

1230b.1
τετμημένος, καὶ τούτων ὃ μὲν δυνατός, ὃ δ' ἀδύνατος·
ἄτμητον γὰρ τό τε μὴ δυνάμενον τμηθῆναι καὶ τὸ δυ-
νατὸν μὲν μὴ τετμημένον δέ. τὸν αὐτὸν δὲ τρόπον καὶ τὸ
ἀκόλαστον. καὶ γὰρ τὸ μὴ πεφυκὸς δέχεσθαι κόλασιν,
1230b.5
καὶ τὸ πεφυκὸς μὲν μὴ κεκολασμένον δὲ περὶ ἁμαρτίας,
περὶ ἃς ὀρθοπραγεῖ ὁ σώφρων, ὥσπερ οἱ παῖδες· κατὰ ταύ-
την γὰρ ἀκόλαστοι λέγονται τὴν ἀκολασίαν. ∧ ἔτι δ' ἄλλον
τρόπον οἱ δυσίατοι καὶ οἱ ἀνίατοι πάμπαν διὰ κολάσεως.
πλεοναχῶς δὲ λεγομένης τῆς ἀκολασίας, ὅτι μὲν περὶ ἡδο-
1230b.10
νάς τινας καὶ λύπας εἰσί, φανερόν, καὶ ὅτι ἐν τῷ περὶ ταύ-
τας διακεῖσθαί πως καὶ ἀλλήλων διαφέρουσι καὶ τῶν ἄλ-
λων· διεγράψαμεν δὲ πρότερον πῶς. [ τὴν ἀκολασίαν ὀνομά-
ζοντες μεταφέρομεν]. τοὺς δὲ ἀκινήτως ἔχοντας δι' ἀναι-
σθησίαν πρὸς τὰς αὐτὰς ἡδονὰς οἳ μὲν καλοῦσιν ἀναισθήτους,
1230b.15
οἳ δὲ ἄλλοις ὀνόμασι τοιούτους προσαγορεύουσιν.