In Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, moral virtues and their extremes are discussed. That is to say, personal characteristics and the extremes thereof. These extremes – or vices – are two of the three pillars of virtue, the third of which is The Golden Mean, or the Virtuous Mean. This mean is the position on the ‘scale’ where a well-balanced, morally virtuous person would lie.
Here’s that scale:
| Vice of Deficiency | Virtuous Mean | Vice of Excess |
|---|---|---|
| Cowardice | Courage | Rashness |
| Insensibility | Temperance | Intemperance |
| Illiberality | Liberality | Prodigality |
| Pettiness | Munificence | Vulgarity |
| Humble-mindedness | High-mindedness | Vain-gloriness |
| Want of Ambition | Right Ambition | Over-ambition |
| Spiritlessness | Good Temper | Irascibility |
| Surliness | Friendly Civility | Obsequiousness |
| Ironical Depreciation | Sincerity | Boastfulness |
| Boorishness | Wittiness | Buffoonery |
| Shamelessness | Modesty | Bashfulness |
| Callousness | Just Resentment | Spitefulness |
Adapted from the Internet Encyclopaedia of Philosophy’s General Introduction to Aristotle.
An abridged version of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics is available from Squashed Philosophers; a site I’ve written about previously.