The Doctrine Of The Mean Analysis

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Following a night out with friends, I passed by a large biker from town who was beating up a petit local college student and shouting anti-gay slurs at him. There were no other people around and I was not sure if the surrounding buildings were business or apartments, because I do not venture to this side of the city often. Unfortunately, I accidently left my cell phone at the club. I did have a couple drinks, but in no way am I intoxicated or impaired. I do know that my car is parked just about half a block up the road and further down the road a couple of miles is a police department. I am a petite individual myself and fear I may not be able to protect myself if the biker attempts to attack me for interrupting him. In an attempt to make the …show more content…
In order to attain virtue, I must put my feelings aside and choose to act as a servant to my emotion, which is the mean. To be successful, I must deviate from the extremes of deficiency and excess, in order to achieve the mean. Aristotle states that in cases where “feelings of fear and confidence the mean is bravery. The excessively fearless person is nameless, and the one who is excessively confident is rash. The one who is excessive in fear and deficient in confidence in cowardly” (Nicomachean Ethics, 1107b1-4). I would be deficient in this situation if I did not act all or attempt to lessen the violent situation. I would be excess if I attempted to try to beat the biker or run him over. I must cultivate my character and know that the right action will appear to be terrifying to myself and I will think I am acting rashly, but it is actually courageous because I lean towards cowardness. I have to be aware of my limitations in who I am as an individual and be willing to push these boundaries and allow myself to become more virtuous by cultivating my habits through …show more content…
An example of this is when I was a young girl there was an extremely bad car accident and instead of continuing on like everyone else my mother pulled over. She got out of the car, ran to the vehicle, and tried to aid to the three injured boys. By no means was she forced to pull over, but she knew it was the just thing to do. Living a good life is not enough; one must also act from a virtuous disposition and know what they were doing is virtuous. By pulling over and addressing the situation quickly, my mom was able to aid to the boys in the safest and most rational manner. Through being able to incorporate what I have learned from watching others allows me to live out actions that are virtuous and to make the most rational decision in helping the college

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