Virtue: Golden mean between excess and deficiency

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reggieM

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Could someone suggest a listing of the virtues and their contrary vices of excess and deficiency?
I’ve been looking around and I can’t find a comprehensive one.

Thanks.
 
Lucretius said:
Check out this blog: branemrys.blogspot.com/

Search for his posts on individual virtues.

I also recommend reading these articles:

thomism.wordpress.com/2008/06/17/oversimplifications-of-the-doctrine-of-the-mean/

thomism.wordpress.com/2016/07/15/love-as-primarily-willed-or-emotional/

After you grasp the basic concepts that St. Thomas is appealing to, you could drive straight into the Summa too.

Christi pax.
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Thanks very much!
This is excellent - just what I was looking for.
Also, can you suggest where in the Summa St. Thomas addresses this?
I appreciate it.
 
reggieM said:
Thanks very much!
This is excellent - just what I was looking for.
Also, can you suggest where in the Summa St. Thomas addresses this?
I appreciate it.
Click to expand...
This is the section where St. Thomas addresses each individual virtue: newadvent.org/summa/3.htm

And this is the section where he addresses and synthesizes Western ethics into one framework: newadvent.org/summa/2.htm

In particular, I highly, highly, highly recommend reading the section called “Man’s Last End” (the first five articles of the Prima Secundæ Partis, the second link) which is absolutely a work of genius even among genius works. He gets directly to the essence to what ethics, the Christian Life, and human life in general, is all about.

Christi pax.
 
If you have any questions about something I’d be happy to answer them…if I can 😃

Christi pax.
 
Thank you for your excellent (and expert) help on this!
I had started reading the Summa attepting to go all the way through and I only made it up to Predestination and I couldn’t get past that part, which I should have. :o
But you’ve given me a great pathway - the sections on the virtues are so useful in my faith journey (I’d think for everyone). It’s just going to take some serious effort and focus, but very much worth while!
 
reggieM said:
Thank you for your excellent (and expert) help on this!
I had started reading the Summa attepting to go all the way through and I only made it up to Predestination and I couldn’t get past that part, which I should have. :o
But you’ve given me a great pathway - the sections on the virtues are so useful in my faith journey (I’d think for everyone). It’s just going to take some serious effort and focus, but very much worth while!
Click to expand...
St. Thomas wrote the Summa in sections, and so he probably expect you to read it in sections too. Don’t overwhelm yourself 😃

A lot of Thomist ethics is rooted in the Thomist natural philosophy and psychology, so it is wise to have a grasp of what St. Thomas means by the four causes, teleos, nature, and soul, specifically the various powers of the soul.

You should just read Arisotle first, specifically the first two books of Physics, Nicomachean Ethics, and De Anima. You could read them side by side with St. Thomas’ commentaries too:

dhspriory.org/thomas/

Christi pax.
 
Lucretius said:
St. Thomas wrote the Summa in sections, and so he probably expect you to read it in sections too. Don’t overwhelm yourself 😃

A lot of Thomist ethics is rooted in the Thomist natural philosophy and psychology, so it is wise to have a grasp of what St. Thomas means by the four causes, teleos, nature, and soul, specifically the various powers of the soul.

You should just read Arisotle first, specifically the first two books of Physics, Nicomachean Ethics, and De Anima. You could read them side by side with St. Thomas’ commentaries too:

dhspriory.org/thomas/

Christi pax.
Click to expand...
Thank you again. I can see the reasoning there and it sounds like a very good plan.
I hope we can pick up this conversation on the new site. If not, I’ll start it up again.
 
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