It is an ancient saying that virtue observes the mean between extremes. But that saying
calls for clarification. Does that mean no one should ever do anything extreme?
But wouldn’t that be a formula for mediocrity rather than virtue? On the on the other hand,
isn’t it bad to be an extremist? What Thomas Aquinas has to say
about this sheds a great deal of light on what it means to be a good person.
According to Aristotle’s definition of moral virtue, a virtue is a disposition
to choose according to the mean relative to us as determined by the one who is prudent.
That definition has a lot to it, so let’s unpack it. First, one who has the virtue of justice, for
example, has a certain quality of the will that inclines the person to render to each his due,
for example, to return borrowed goods or to pay off a debt. Second, each virtue disposes a person
to do not just anything, but to act according to a mean. The idea here is that all forms of
action fall within a spectrum of extremes. The classic example is eating. One may eat too much
or too little. Or one may eat far too often or far too rarely. Temperance is the virtue that
regulates eating, and it does so by moderating it. To moderate one’s eating is to keep it to the
intermediate place between extremes: neither too much nor too little, neither too often
nor too rarely. Virtue observes the mean or the intermediate point between extremes.
Now many questions commonly come up about the mean of virtue, and only a little thought reveals that
the mean is not the same for everybody even in one and the same matter such as eating.
What counts as a moderate amount of food for an adolescent male is generally too much for
a fully grown middle aged one, and what is too much for a petite ballerina is too little for
an Olympic wrestler. And similarly, the mean of virtue is not the same across all matters.
When it comes to eating, the mean is between extremes of quantity and
frequency and other factors. When it comes to other matters, however, things are different.
When it comes to sexual behavior, for example, the mean of the virtue of chastity is to act on sexual
impulse with exactly one lawfully wedded spouse always in a manner open to life. When it comes to
financial exchanges, the mean is arithmetic equality in the value of goods exchanged.
When it comes to generosity, the mean is to give in abundance in proportion to one’s holdings. The
widow who gave but two small coins was generous in the extreme, since it was all she had, and what
she did was praiseworthy. When it comes to the virtue of charity, when it comes to loving God,
St. Thomas is very clear. One cannot love God too much. For charity, he says, the mean is the
extreme. And the more extreme one is in loving God the better one is. The martyrs who gave
up their lives in a most extreme act of love for Christ are among the greatest examples of charity.
The perennial philosophical tradition, therefore, takes into account a certain kind of relativity in
the moral life. The ancient definition of virtue carefully says that virtue chooses according the
mean relative to us, that is, in relative to one’s concrete person in one’s actual circumstances and
relative to the matter at hand, for example, eating or buying and selling or in loving God.
And now another question commonly comes up. How does one know the mean of virtue
in any given case or instance? One virtue in particular is very important because it is the
virtue that identifies the mean in any given matter, and that is prudence. Prudence knows
the mean or intermediate point in matters of food and drink, sexuality, financial exchanges,
generosity, charity, and every other moral matter. In all matters, prudence knows the mean
and virtue keeps one to it in one’s actions. That is why prudence is sometimes called the captain
of the ship. Just as a captain gives different orders to different sailors at different times
and circumstances, but always in keeping with what will actually bring the ship safely into port,
so prudence tells us that different people should do different things in different circumstances,
but always in keeping with what will actually lead a person to true happiness, beatitude, God.
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