Essay Sample on Aristotle's Golden Mean

Introduction

Aristotle (a Greek philosopher) played a significant role in the development of ancient Greek philosophy. Aristotle applied his knowledge and perception of society by developing various theories with the intention of changing the people's thoughts and understanding that would turn them into happier people. In consideration to Aristotle's Golden Mean, as described in the book of Nicomachean Ethics (Crisp, 2014), the Golden mean was developed as a virtue to seek a reasonable place between two vices with the intention of avoiding extremes (one of deficiency and one of excess).

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However, an example of Aristotle's Golden Mean today is religion and other personal interests (such as sports). By involving in religion, individuals tend to believe that there is an omnipresent being looking at their activities and taking care of them. Also, in the involvement of faith, people do not only care about themselves but tend to get involved and care for other people since there is the presence of the common ground. As a result, they believe in a supernatural being makes people happier. Moreover, when it comes to personal interests (such as sports), it provides people with the urge to take time and do something that makes them happy. Thus, giving themselves happiness. Another example of Aristotle's Golden Mean is diet plans for individuals with difficulties in maintaining a balanced diet. In the case of diet plans, individuals with poor eating habit might tend to be either overweight or underweight. Thus, with proper diet plans, they help make people lead healthy eating habits which in turn makes them happier in life than before. Additionally, the third example includes any form of rehabilitation for addiction. In this example, any rehabilitation assists in helping people with certain extremes like addiction regardless of what they could be. These programs of rehabilitation are intended to help people by giving them a second chance to lead healthy happy lives.

21st Century Consideration on The Issues of Golden Mean ExamplesCorrespondingly, in the 21st-century individuals could consider the issues of these examples as merely character development goals. Aristotle's ethics is majorly practical which derives that it should be the action leading to the realization of the good of the human being and as a whole. The theory is centered on an individual's character since by improving it, the individuals are enhancing their virtues. The golden mean represents a balance between extreme. For instance, according to Aristotle's, considering courage as a virtue, if taken deficient, it would manifest cowardice while on the other hand, if excessive it would exhibit recklessness. Thus, in the elaborating of the golden mean as character development, the significance of the of Aristotle's Golden Mean re-affirms that the balance in life is critical. Currently, as individuals indulge in various activities, they may deem to make them happy, they usually succumb into the extreme of the excess or deficiency. As derived from the examples of Aristotle's Golden Mean which could encompass extreme accumulation of food, alcohol, drugs, wealth and other deficiencies such as inadequate physical activities, they could differ with moral issues.

Moreover, as a result of the different issues in the 21st century, a majority of issues may involve moral matters; however, the most significant occurrence maintaining a proper balance between extremes in the human life are the various events of character development goals. Through character development goals, individuals are able and capable of ascribing to certain practices that will help them lead a proper life with balanced extremes as well as a happy life. Hence, people in the 21st century would consider many of the issues of these examples of Aristotle's Golden Mean as merely character development objectives.

Aristotle On Some Moral Issues Not Being Objects of The Golden Mean

Similarly, Aristotle determines that some moral issues cannot be objects of the Golden Mean. As the golden rule is based on individual character, it means that it applies to virtues and not vices. From the example, of courage as a middle between one extremity of reckless and the other extreme of cowardness, one could derive various elaborations of on how some moral issues cannot be objects of Golden mean. A coward could be an individual fleeing from a fight; however, a reckless individual could be a person charging to fight against fifty individuals. The occurrence does not mean that Aristotle's Golden Mean is the exact arithmetical center or balance between two extremities, but the middle ground is dependent on the situation at hand. There cannot be a universal central balance that would apply to every situation. As a result of the difficulties in balancing specific moral cases involved with feelings and emotions continuous moral development is essential.

Furthermore, some of the moral issues such as issues to do with specific actions and emotions such as envy, hate, theft, murder, and jealousy are always wrong regardless of the situation at hand hence cannot be objects of Aristotle's Golden Mean. In actions, for instance, concerning murder, hate, envy, among others, there can no common ground or balance in their extremities since they are considered unacceptable. To sum everything up, in as much as the golden mean may strive to deliver the possibility of a balance between extremes, some moral issues lack a balance regarding their extremes since they are either done or not done at all.

Works Cited

Crisp, Roger, ed. Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics. Cambridge University Press, 2014.