GUIDE TO THE PHILOSOPHY 1938 - 1947.pdf - Rare Books at ...

ARISTOTLE'S MORALS AND POLITICS 103-
affords a good example of the doctrine of the mean in
action, but it also emphasises the somewhat stereotyped
attitude to life which its application entails. To stereotype*
one's activities in such a way as to obtain from each the
greatest possible amount of satisfaction which it is capableof
giving, may be good advice in the case of smoking, but
I doubt whether it would be* found to satisfy the requirements
of the moral consciousness in cases in which selfsacrifice,
courage and unselfishness arc demanded* A man
should not, it might be said, adopt a calculating attitude
to virtue, or measure in advance the amount of good which
he proposes to do in the world. Moreover, the doctrine
of die mean is, as I have already observed, suitable for
middle age rather than for youth. Youth is the time for
experiment. A young man should, in common parlance,,
be ready to "taste any drink once", and there is a natural
tendency to think ill of a man of twenty-one who, in
his anxiety to avoid risk and maximize pleasure, keeps
always in view the middle course which is appropriate
to middle age.
Who Determines the Mean. This criticism derives
support from a further consideration
doctrine to Aristotle's political theory.
which relates the
When we ask the
question, whose insight is it which lays down the rule
by which the mean is to be determined, we find that it
is not the insight of the individual whose activity is in
question, but that of the wise legislator. The resort to the
legislator to fix the mean is a necessary implication of
Aristotle's political doctrine. It is the object of the wise
educator so to mould the pupil, of the wise legislator so
to frame the laws, that the citizen who profits from his
educational training and acts habitually in accordance
with the laws will lead the best sort of life of which he
is capable. Now the sign of a good life is habitual action
in accordance with the doctrine of the mean. Therefore,
in the last resort, a life which is governed by the doctrine
of the mean is one to which a citizen is habituated, not