Book Z

Abstract

Since we have stated earlier that one should choose the mean and not excess or deficiency,¹ and since the mean is such as right reason² declares it to be, let us go over this next. Now in each of the habits we have mentioned,³ as in all the other cases also [art, inquiry, action, intention],⁴ there is an aim in view towards which a man who has reason intensifies or slows down [his feelings or actions], and there is a definition of the mean which, we maintain, lies between excess and deficiency and exists in accordance with right reason. Such a statement is indeed true, but not at all clear;⁵ for in other endeavors, too, of which there is a science, it is true to say that we should exert ourselves or slacken neither more nor less but in moderation and as right reason states, but with this alone a man would not know any more, e.g., [he would not know] what kind of medicine to apply to the body if some one were to say “whatever medical science prescribes and as the doctor orders”. So with regards to the dispositions of the soul, too, one should not only state this truth but also specify what right reason is and what its definition is.