Aristotle on Temperance
Charles M. Young
In Anton and Preus, eds., Essays in Ancient Greek Philosophy IV: Aristotle's Ethics
SUNY Press, 1991

"[T]emperance is concerned with pleasures to which we human beings are sensitive precisely because we are animals, too. He means us to understand temperance as a virtue that regulates our relation to our animality." (YOUNG, p. 111)

"It seems to be Aristotle's view that, while eating and drinking are activities in which, being animals, we must engage, temperate people welcome - delight in - the pleasures these activities bring." (YOUNG, p. 116)

"Profligates enjoy consuming what they should not, and derive more pleasure than they should from consuming what they should, because they take it that physical pleasure is worthy of serious pursuit." (YOUNG, p. 117) [PSA: this is a kind of false spoudaios, i.e., seriousness directed at a merely apparent good.]

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