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argument or imagination informs us that we have been insulted or slighted,
and anger, reasoning as it were that anything like this must be fought against,
boils up straightway; while appetite, if argument or perception merely says
that an object is pleasant, springs to the enjoyment of it. Therefore anger
obeys the argument in a sense, but appetite does not. It is therefore more
disgraceful; for the man who is incontinent in respect of anger is in a sense
conquered by argument, while the other is conquered by appetite and not by
argument.
(2) Further, we pardon people more easily for following natural desires,
since we pardon them more easily for following such appetites as are
common to all men, and in so far as they are common; now anger and bad
temper are more natural than the appetites for excess, i.e. for unnecessary
objects. Take for instance the man who defended himself on the charge of
striking his father by saying ‘yes, but he struck his father, and he struck his,
and’ (pointing to his child) ‘this boy will strike me when he is a man; it runs
in the family’; or the man who when he was being dragged along by his son
bade him stop at the doorway, since he himself had dragged his father only as
far as that.
(2) Further, those who are more given to plotting against others are more
criminal. Now a passionate man is not given to plotting, nor is anger itself-it
is open; but the nature of appetite is illustrated by what the poets call
Aphrodite, ‘guile-weaving daughter of Cyprus’, and by Homer’s words about
her ‘embroidered girdle’:
And the whisper of wooing is there,
Whose subtlety stealeth the wits of the wise, how prudent soe’er.
Therefore if this form of incontinence is more criminal and disgraceful than
that in respect of anger, it is both incontinence without qualification and in a
sense vice.
(4) Further, no one commits wanton outrage with a feeling of pain, but
every one who acts in anger acts with pain, while the man who commits
outrage acts with pleasure. If, then, those acts at which it is most just to be
angry are more criminal than others, the incontinence which is due to appetite
is the more criminal; for there is no wanton outrage involved in anger.
Plainly, then, the incontinence concerned with appetite is more disgraceful
than that concerned with anger, and continence and incontinence are
concerned with bodily appetites and pleasures; but we must grasp the
differences among the latter themselves. For, as has been said at the
beginning, some are human and natural both in kind and in magnitude, others
1860
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book The Complete Aristotle"
The Complete Aristotle
- Title
- The Complete Aristotle
- Author
- Aristotle
- Date
- ~322 B.C.
- Language
- English
- License
- PD
- Size
- 21.0 x 29.7 cm
- Pages
- 2328
- Keywords
- Philosophy, Antique, Philosophie, Antike, Dialogues, Metaphysik, Metaphysics, Ideologie, Ideology, Englisch
- Categories
- Geisteswissenschaften
- International
Table of contents
- Part 1; Logic (Organon) 3
- Categories 4
- On Interpretation 34
- Prior Analytics, Book I 56
- Prior Analytics, Book II 113
- Posterior Analytics, Book I 149
- Posterior Analytics, Book II 193
- Topics, Book I 218
- Topics, Book II 221
- Topics, Book III 237
- Topics, Book IV 248
- Topics, Book V 266
- Topics, Book VI 291
- Topics, Book VII 317
- Topics, Book VIII 326
- On Sophistical Refutations 348
- Part 2; Universal Physics 396
- Physics, Book I 397
- Physics, Book II 415
- Physics, Book III 432
- Physics, Book IV 449
- Physics, Book V 481
- Physics, Book VI 496
- Physics, Book VII 519
- Physics, Book VIII 533
- On the Heavens, Book I 570
- On the Heavens, Book II 599
- On the Heavens, Book III 624
- On the Heavens, Book IV 640
- On Generation and Corruption, Book I 651
- On Generation and Corruption, Book II 685
- Meteorology, Book I 707
- Meteorology, Book II 733
- Meteorology, Book III 760
- Meteorology, Book IV 773
- Part 3; Human Physics 795
- On the Soul, Book I 796
- On the Soul, Book II 815
- On the Soul, Book III 840
- On Sense and the Sensible 861
- On Memory and Reminiscence 889
- On Sleep and Sleeplessness 899
- On Dreams 909
- On Prophesying by Dreams 918
- On Longevity and the Shortness of Life 923
- On Youth, Old Age, Life and Death, and Respiration 929
- Part 4; Animal Physics 952
- The History of Animals, Book I 953
- The History of Animals, Book II translated 977
- The History of Animals, Book III 1000
- The History of Animals, Book IV 1029
- The History of Animals, Book V 1056
- The History of Animals, Book VI 1094
- The History of Animals, Book VII 1135
- The History of Animals, Book VIII 1150
- The History of Animals, Book IX 1186
- On the Parts of Animals, Book I 1234
- On the Parts of Animals, Book II 1249
- On the Parts of Animals, Book III 1281
- On the Parts of Animals, Book IV 1311
- On the Motion of Animals 1351
- On the Gait of Animals 1363
- On the Generation of Animals, Book I 1381
- On the Generation of Animals, Book II 1412
- On the Generation of Animals, Book III 1444
- On the Generation of Animals, Book IV 1469
- On the Generation of Animals, Book V 1496
- Part 5; Metaphysics 1516
- Part 6; Ethics and Politics 1748
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book I 1749
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book II 1766
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book III 1779
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book IV 1799
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book V 1817
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VI 1836
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VII 1851
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VIII 1872
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book IX 1890
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book X 1907
- Politics, Book I 1925
- Politics, Book II 1943
- Politics, Book III 1970
- Politics, Book IV 1997
- Politics, Book V 2023
- Politics, Book VI 2053
- Politics, Book VII 2065
- Politics, Book VIII 2091
- The Athenian Constitution 2102
- Part 7; Aesthetic Writings 2156