Tentative Response - Aristotle

6. A master of any art is faced with the task of aiming at the “intermediate”, i.e. the point between defect (too less) and excess (too much). When we look at good works of art, we can often claim that nothing can be added or taken away from it to improve it in any way. Since virtue is greater than art even, it must satisfy the qualification of good art that it aims at the intermediate. Reaching the mean is an exhaustive process requiring feeling passions, pleasures, pains, etc. “at the right times, with reference to the right objects, towards the right people, with the right motive, and in the right way” (1106b15, Aristotle 30). Some illustrations of the intermediate include:

• Regarding confidence, those who are in excess are called rash, while those deficient are called cowards. The mean is courage, which is virtuous.
• With money, the mean is liberality. Those who spend too much and do not take enough are prodigal, while those who take too much without taking enough are mean.
• Concerning honor, the mean is proper pride. Those who are in excess are called emptily vain, and the deficiency of honor is undue humility. These extremes apply not only to actions or characters, but also to desires: those who desire too much honor are ambitious, while those who do not desire enough are unambitious. The mean for this, like many of these other classifications, do not have a name.