[T]he Aristotelian "golden mean" bears no relation to the attempt by hawkers for "moderation" or "prudence" to weaken high principle. Aristotle's virtues properly apply to cases where more or less of a certain act changes its qualitative merits. Thus, "too little" food and "too much" food are both bad for the individual. But politics is an entirely different matter. For here we are dealing with acts that remain qualitatively identical regardless of number: e.g., the murder of 10 people is the same type of act as the murder of 100. In neither case do we abandon principle. In one, we uphold the rational principle of "optimum food"; in the other, the rational principle of "abstaining from murder."
The Heresy of Prudence
For more on moderation, see the BlackCrayon definition of
centrism.
"A political moderate is someone without
principles." -- me
1 Comments:
I vaguely recall a Randian--Peikoff I think--in some taped lecture saying that the Golden Mean does mean we should have everything, such as, say, axe-murdering, in moderation.
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