The PATH: The Virtuous Path, Golden Mean, and Common Good
sent by J.W. Bertolotti | October 11, 2021
1. The Virtuous Path
Despite consensus on virtue being the path to the good life, embodying a life of virtue is no less challenging.
According to the Gospel of Matthew (7:13-14):
Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
Similarly, the Buddha explained:
“Bad deeds, and deeds hurtful to ourselves, are easy to do; what is beneficial and good, that is very difficult to do.”
The virtuous life is a difficult path and, therefore, a good sign you're on it is making mistakes along the way. To quote the legendary coach John Wooden, “If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not doing anything.”
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2. The Golden Mean
Aristotle followed Socrates and Plato in taking the virtues to be central to a well-lived life. Like Plato, he regards the ethical virtues (justice, courage, temperance, and wisdom) as complex rational, emotional, and social skills.
According to Aristotle, what we need to live well is a proper appreciation of the way in which such goods as friendship, pleasure, virtue, honor and wealth fit together as a whole.
In The Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle explained every ethical virtue is a condition intermediate between two other states.
Virtue is the golden mean between two vices, the one of excess and the other of deficiency.
For example, the courageous person judges that some dangers are worth facing and others not and experiences fear to the degree appropriate to the circumstances. The act of courage lies between the coward, who flees every danger and experiences excessive fear, and the rash person, who judges every danger worth facing and experiences little or no fear.
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3. The Common Good
The notion of cosmopolitanism, writes Massimo Pigliucci in How to Live a Good Life, is central to Stoic philosophy. It views everyone and everything in the same boat (planet Earth). “We are dependent on each other to make it so that the boat stays afloat, and its occupants thrive.”
In Meditations, the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote,
Meditate often on the interconnectedness and mutual interdependence of all things in the universe. For in a sense, all things are mutually woven together and therefore have an affinity for each other — for one thing.
The path of virtue converges with acts for the common good. Highlighted in these wise words:
“Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness.” - Seneca
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Thank you for reading; I hope you found something useful. If so, please consider sharing it with others.
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