People Should Aim For Moderation In All Things Philosophy Essay

Leading a happy life is the common end of human being. To reach this goal, there are many steps to be walked and there many ideas to be came up with. One among several famous saying of Aristotle introduced that means. Aristotle asserted that people should aim for moderation in all things. What indeed does the assertat5ion mean?

Before starting in-depth elaboration about this saying, we should have a glimpse into the brief background of Aristotle. Aristotle was born in Greece (384 BCE). He was the pupil of Plato who was the student of Socrates. Aristotle is a celebrated figure in ancient Greek philosophy. Aristotle made considerable contribution to logic, metaphysics, mathematics, physics, biology, botany, ethics, politics, agriculture, medicine, dance and theatre. Although he was the student of Plato, he was more empirical and rejected the Plato’s theory. Aristotle emphasizes on good reasoning and virtue.

What is virtue? The distinct ability to control desire with the help of reason is call moral virtue.

Virtue is attributed to the study of ethic. Ethics has several meanings. It is often used to refer to a set of standards of right and wrong established by a particular group and imposed on members of that group as a mean of regulating and setting limits on their behavior (Boss, 2004, p5). The main emphasis of Aristotle’s ethic study is his doctrine of the mean. The doctrine of mean is found in both Eastern and Western philosophies. According to this doctrine, virtues simply entail moderation or seeking the middle path (Boss, 2004, p393).

The great idea of Aristotle is reasonable for many reasons. First it aims to guide people live in a virtuous manner. It is crucial to us to maintain and practice good behavior and avoid committing aggressive actions that consider vice. The ethic as mentioned in Aristotle ideology is the main tool for regulating individual’s behavior progress. Virtuous deed brings people dignity. For example, if a statesman is a corrupted person, he will be sent to the justification if found guilty. If he is too docile or lack of the courage to maintain strong minded and practicable capability, he will be consider to be unhelpful to his citizen. Then come denounce or condemnation. If he chose the moderation way to lead his country, the country may walk toward the road of prosperity. The doctrine of mean in the context of leading the country, for example, mean the leader is a wise person who takes the responsibility to bring the country the glorification. Those actions include, not to think about the policy of invasion of other states for the sake of territorial expansion, because that action sill triggers the war and causes the devastative destruction. On the other hand, the leader should not be too comfortable on the mountain of essence, luxurious living and joyful activities. By doing so, he will have no time to think about the development of the nation. The illnesses in the society will not be settled. The better way for him is to live in a moderate ling standard and allocate his time to finding the ways or technique to enhance technology, education, environmental and social progress.

One obvious and worthwhile learning account is the Singapore priminister. Throughout the history of Singapore, the priministers were and are famous for cleanses government and economic achievement. The account means that there is no corruption in the country. People of Singapore are highly educated and virtuous. The intention to committing any bad action is totally cut off. Other interesting example is Switzerland. I once saw from the media that the Swedish actually don’t know how to bribe. Although it sounds incredible to may other, it is the indisputable fact that was proves by the Number One ranking in the international transparency report as no-corruption nation in the world. The points mentioned above concerning that two nation are convincing enough to prove that moderation mean not only bring people their fame, but also push the country to development.

The doctrine of mean enhance the inner strongness. Most virtues entail finding the mean between excess and deficiency. For example, concerning about the human natural emotion, if he fear nothing, he is too courage, if he fear everything, he is coward. Both pointed situations are vice. It is hard to take the moderate way to reach the best of the Aristotle theory. People, still have to make determine effort to develop the good mental well-being. If a man manages to do so, he will have the internal tranquility. The internal peace regulates the external activities not to harm others or to exploit the others. This builds up the harmonic world. Example, Denmark is ranked in the safest country in the world. People in Denmark do not rob, steal or fight each other. We can imagine how happy we are if we were deposited in such a peaceful country. Again, moral virtue of internal peace makes the world a better place to live. People value respecting each other.

The doctrine of mean, at the same time, is beneficial to human physical health. Just take a simple example, eating too much food makes people be obese. Whereas eating too little food weaken people and bring disease. This is just the easy to understand philosophy of Aristotle, but is worth it penny to be taken into account. People should schedule their eating habit, exercising, entertaining and learning. . It is crucial to lead a healthy life. Finding the balance, in doing such daily living activities no time it destructs our progress. Taking one other example, sleeping to many hours makes people lazy, brain’s thinking process slow down and no energy. While sleep less makes people exhausted and unproductive in thinking. As a result they should follow the guideline of doctor. People in young age sleep around 10 hours. People in teen age sleep 8 hours. The amount of time to sleep be taken lesser for people when they grow older. That is the road of moderation.

The doctrine of mean improves critical thinking. To find the best solutions or take effecrtive3 measure for a particular issue, people should think critically. For example, if eat 100 apples is too many and eat zero apple is the least. It doesn’t mean you should eat 50 apples comply with the math mean. Rather, the mean based on the merit of the situation. What is more, regarding the drinking of alcoholic drink such as beer or wine, it is reasonable to drink somewhat larger amount in the cold weather area, but not in the not climate area. If not conform to the average guidance, the merit of the wine will torn to be the harmful tool. The consequence of this excessive and shortage needs careful thought of ours to avoid any unexpected outcome of the action.

It is not only the fact in real life that support the assertatoin of Aristotle. Rather the Buddhist ethics, for example, denounces the extremes of excessive indulgence and self-mortification or self-denial. For Buddha, the path of liberation-the life of virtue and inner peace-entailing taking the middle path. The same, Confucian clamed: “Equilibrium is the great foundation of the world, and harmony is its universal truth. The mean in Confucian ethics entails doing what is proper to one’s station in life. One fact is too stingy to give out your help is unfavorable, but too generous to give to the poor place the undue burden on their children and on the society to support them in their old age.

Leaving away from the middle mean arouse the social controversy and unsecure. There only the time of plague and fire. The reason is that people are all seeking for power and protect their own interest. Sometimes they are too defensive. Sometimes they are too offensive. Considering that fact that the process of choosing the secretary General of the United Nation is so critical. The candidate must be highly educated and be free of nationalism. By doing so, there won’t be any political bias ever happen. Thus the corruption, mismanagement and inefficiency of the institute lessen. The body doesn’t serve only the goal of the super power and be manipulated by the major power.

To sum up, Aristotle’s assertation is a golden mean to a significant extent. It discloses the human actual teaching path to the peaceful and happy destination. We have to do the right thing in the right place at the right time by the right mean to for the favorable and good result.