tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11017234.post115893518109939029..comments2023-11-16T07:12:40.867-05:00Comments on Dissoi Blogoi: What the Doctrine of the Mean Means to MeUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11017234.post-1158947754573705912006-09-22T13:55:00.000-04:002006-09-22T13:55:00.000-04:00Dear Michael,You say, when a person’s going astray...Dear Michael,<BR/><BR/>You say, when a person’s going astray in emotion and action falls under the rubric of a vice of character, then his “going astray amounts to a lack of rational control in execution and response” that is meaningfully seen as too much or too little in some respect. <BR/><BR/>I see how this view of vice, as something necessarily involving a lack or loss of a sufficient degree of control, encourages the view that vice is essentially missing a mean. But haven’t we just been considering one example of vice, the for-gain or pleonektic adulterer, whose evil-doing is anything but out of control? Perhaps the akolastic adulterer loses control when he sees some married women he desires, but the for-gain adulterer is plotting to profit from blackmail or in other some such despicable fashion. His behaviour is carefully plotted and controlled to gain his ends. No lack of control.<BR/><BR/>Many vices seem to come in pairs like this. Take for another example the man who loses control under stress and beats his wife and children. Paired with this pleasant fellow, there is also the even more sinister character who thinks violence a quick and effective strategy for maintaining his absolute power in the household. His violence is utterly controlled and calculated to maintain his power.<BR/><BR/>Where vice is deliberate and calculated, the problem is not degree of (dys)control. The most natural Aristotelian diagnosis of such cases, or some of them at least, is that the agent is behaving completely inappropriately toward the persons in question. It is a wrong-person error. One does not seduce married women. One does not use violence against the wife and kids. ( Maybe in the last case the man is a soldier or policeman, so violence is a legitimate part of his professional life, but not at home. The wife and kids are perps or the enemy. )Macuquinas d' Orohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12930402984007155030noreply@blogger.com