Section 7: Applying our definition to particular virtues

We must, however, not only make this general statement, but also apply it to the particular virtues and vices. For in accounts about action, although general statements apply more widely, _[30] those that apply to particular cases are truer, since action has to do with individual cases, and our accounts must harmonize with them. We may take these cases from our list of virtues.

Virtues having to do with our instinctual feelings

In the case of feelings of fear and confidence, “courage” is the mean. When it comes to people who are excessively fearless, such excessive fearlessness has no name _[1107b1] (many of the states of character have no name), while people who are excessively confident are called “overconfident.” People who are excessively fearful and fall short in confidence are called “cowards.”

In the case of pleasures and pains (not all of them, and not as much with regard to the pains) the mean is _[5] “temperance” and the excess “intemperance.” People who are deficient when it comes to enjoying pleasures are not common. Thus, such people haven’t received a name [in everyday language]. But let’s call them “insensible.”

Virtues having to do with money and property

In the case of giving and receiving money or property, the mean is “generosity,” the excess “wastefulness,” and the deficiency “stinginess.” _[10] In these actions people exceed and fall short in contrary ways. The wasteful person exceeds in spending and falls short in receiving, while the stringy person exceeds in receiving and falls short in giving.

At present we are giving a mere outline or summary, and are satisfied with this. _[15] These states of character will be defined more exactly later, [courage, temperance, and their vices in Book III, and the others in Book IV].

In the case of money and property there are also other dispositions. There is a mean called “the appropriate use of wealth.” The person who uses wealth appropriately differs from the generous person in this way: he deals with large sums of money and large expenditures, whereas the generous person deals with smaller amounts of money and expenditures. The excess relative to the appropriate use of wealth is “tastelessness” and “vulgarity,” and the deficiency is “cheapness.” These differ from the states of character opposed to generosity, and how they differ _[20] will be discussed later [in Book IV, section 2].

Virtues having to do with respect and status

In the case of desire for people’s respect and aversion to their disrespect, the mean is “magnanimity.” The excess is known as a sort of “conceitedness.” The deficiency is “undue humility.”

And just as we said generosity was related to the appropriate use of wealth in that it differed from it by dealing with smaller amounts of wealth or property, _[25] so there is a virtue similarly related to magnanimity [that is called “right ambition,” which] is concerned with respect and disrespect in smaller matters, while magnanimity is concerned with bigger kinds of respect or disrespect. For it is possible to desire respect as one ought, and more than one ought, and less. And the person who exceeds in his desire for respect is called “overly ambitious,” the person who falls short “unambitious,” while the intermediate person has no name [in everyday language]. The dispositions also don’t have common names [in everyday language], _[30] except that the disposition of the overly ambitious person is called “ambition.” Hence the people who are at the extremes lay claim to the middle place. And we ourselves sometimes call the intermediate person “ambitious” and sometimes “unambitious,” and sometimes praise the ambitious person and sometimes the unambitious person. _[1108a1] The reason we do this will be stated later [in Book IV, section 4]. But now let’s speak of the remaining states of character according to the method which has been indicated.

In the case of anger there is also an excess, a deficiency, and a mean, although they can’t really be said to have special names [in everyday language]. But since we sometimes call the intermediate person _[5] good-tempered let’s call the mean “good temper.” When it comes to the people at the extremes, let’s call the one who exceeds “excessively angry” and his vice “excessive anger.” And let’s call the person who falls short a “lacking in anger” and the deficiency “lack of anger.”

Virtues having to do with being a good person in social settings

There are also three other means that have a certain likeness to one another, although they also differ from one another. _[10] They are all concerned what we say and what we do in social contexts. But they differ in that one is concerned with truth in how we relate to others, while the other two with pleasantness. And of the two concerned with pleasantness, one kind is concerned with giving amusement, while the other is concerned with being socially pleasant in all the circumstances of life. We must therefore speak of these three virtues, that we may better see that in all things the mean is praise-worthy, whereas the _[15] extremes are neither praiseworthy nor right, but worthy of blame. Now most of these states also have no names, but we must try, as in the other cases, to invent names ourselves so that we may be clear and easy to follow.

With regard to truth, then, the intermediate is a “truthful” person and the mean may be called “truthfulness,” _[20] while false pretense that exaggerates what’s true is “fraudulence” and the person characterized by it a “fraud,” and the false pretense that understates what’s true is “irony” and the person characterized by it “ironic” [in the bad sense of that term.]

With regard to pleasantness in relaxed social settings, such as parties or similar events, the intermediate person is “good humored” and the disposition “good humor.” The excess is “vulgarity” and the person characterized by it is “vulgar” or “obscene.” The person who falls short _[25] is “rude” or “uncivil” and his state is “rudeness.”

With regard to the remaining kind of pleasantness in social settings, the sort that applies to life in general, the person who is pleasant in the right way is “friendly” and the mean is “friendliness.” The person who exceeds, if he is seeking his own benefit, is a flatterer, but if he has no specific goal in view, he is “obsequious” or “too nice.” The person who falls short and is unpleasant in everything is a “disagreeable” and “contentious” sort of person. _[30]

Other virtues

There are also means in feelings and concerned with feelings. Shame is not a virtue, and yet a person with a sense of shame is also praised. For even in these matters, one person is said to be intermediate, and another to exceed, as for instance the “bashful” person who is ashamed of everything, while the person who falls short or is not ashamed of anything at all is “shameless,” and the intermediate person has a “sense of shame.” _[35]

“Righteous indignation” is a mean between “envy” and “spite,” and these states are concerned with _[1108b1] the pain and pleasure that are felt in response to what happens to our neighbors. The person who is characterized by righteous indignation is pained when people do well who don’t deserve it. The envious person, going beyond this, is pained at anyone else’s good luck. The spiteful person falls so far short of _[5] being pained that he even enjoys when bad things happen to others.

There will be an opportunity to discuss the following issues later [in Book V], but with regard to “justice,” since the term doesn’t have one simple meaning, after describing the other states of character, we will distinguish two kinds of justice and say how each of them is a mean. We will also to the same with the virtues of reason [in Book VI]. _[10]