How do you define temperance?

1 : moderation in action, thought, or feeling : restraint. 2a : habitual moderation in the indulgence of the appetites or passions. b : moderation in or abstinence from the use of alcoholic beverages.

What is Plato’s definition of temperance?

Temperance is one of Plato’s four virtues. In a just polis, temperance exists in everyone agreeing to obey the hierarchy and those above them. In the individual, temperance means that all three parts of the soul agree to let the rational soul rule above all. Temperance, in this sense, is self-mastery.

Why is temperance a crucial virtue?

Temperance is important, not because it makes us not want to desire pleasure or enjoy things. On the contrary, it helps us to recognize the value of our desires and the satisfaction of them but in balance and according to their nature, guided by our reason.

What is the excess of being temperance in Aristotle’s view?

Temperance – is moderation in the desire for physical pleasures. An excess of desire is overindulgence. Deficiency has no common name, but may be labeled “insensitivity.” Generosity or Liberality – is moderation in the size of the gifts one is prone to give or accept.

What’s an example of temperance?

Temperance is defined as showing restraint in eating or drinking, and especially avoiding alcohol. An example of temperance is when you refrain from drinking any alcohol. Moderation in drinking alcoholic beverages or total abstinence from alcoholic beverages.

Is temperance a virtue?

Temperance in its modern use is defined as moderation or voluntary self-restraint. Temperance has been described as a virtue by religious thinkers, philosophers, and more recently, psychologists, particularly in the positive psychology movement.

What is temperance virtue Aristotle?

Aristotle defines temperance as the ability to act rationally in relation to pleasure and pain. “Temperance is a mean with regard to pleasures” [1117b25-26] (Barnes, 1995, 1764).

What are the virtues Aristotle?

For example, regarding what are the most important virtues, Aristotle proposed the following nine: wisdom; prudence; justice; fortitude; courage; liberality; magnificence; magnanimity; temperance.

Why is temperance The first virtue?

Benjamin Franklin chooses temperance as the first of his thirteen virtues of life because it is this virtue that allows one to develop the self-discipline necessary to attain the other twelve. The cultivation of temperance leads to the development of a cool, clear head, which as Franklin points out is…

What is the highest aim for human striving according to Aristotle?

Aristotle believed that all our striving for something underlies one core goal we want to attain: And that’s this one goodness, and for us humans it is eudaimonia, which can be translated into happiness, or human flourishing, or a good life.

What is virtue according to Aristotle?

Aristotle explains what virtues are in some detail. They are dispositions to choose good actions and passions, informed by moral knowledge of several sorts, and motivated both by a desire for characteristic goods and by a desire to perform virtuous acts for their own sake.

How do you use temperance?

Temperance in a Sentence ?

1. Determined to never become an alcoholic, Tim exercised temperance whenever he drank alcohol so he wouldn’t drink too much.
2. If you are on a diet, you must use temperance to stop yourself from eating foods you shouldn’t so that you keep your weight in check.

What did Aristotle mean by the virtue of temperance?

Aristotle regards temperance as moderation regarding pleasures and pains, and he loosely associates this virtue with courage as the two virtues of the non-rational part of the soul. Aristotle notes that temperance applies more to physical pleasures and pains than mental, and rather more to pleasure than to pain.

What was the definition of temperance in ancient Greece?

Greek civilization. The Greek definition of temperance translates to “moderation in action, thought, or feeling; restraint.”. Temperance is a major Athenian virtue, as advocated by Plato; self-restraint (sôphrosune) is one of his four core virtues of the ideal city, and echoed by Aristotle.

How does temperance help us control our desire for pleasure?

In other words, temperance is the virtue that helps us control our physical desire for pleasure, which we share with the animals. In this sense, as Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J., notes in his Modern Catholic Dictionary, temperance corresponds to fortitude, the cardinal virtue that helps us restrain our fears, physical as well as spiritual.

What does the Catholic Church say about temperance?

Temperance, as the Catholic Encylopedia notes, “is concerned with what is difficult for a man, not in so far as he is a rational being precisely, but rather in so far as he is an animal.”. In other words, temperance is the virtue that helps us control our physical desire for pleasure, which we share with the animals.