Summary
There are three bad states of character: vice, incontinence,
and brutishness. Opposite to these three are virtue, continence,
and superhuman virtue. We now examine incontinence and softness,
or effeminacy, and their opposites, continence and endurance.
A great deal of inconsistency exists among popular views
about incontinence. How does incontinence arise: is it through ignorance or
in full knowledge? With respect to what are people incontinent? How
does incontinence differ from vices like licentiousness?
Aristotle proposes four solutions. First, it is possible
that a person knows what is wrong but does not reflect upon this
knowledge, and so does wrong without thinking about it. Second,
the incontinent person may make a false inference when using the
practical syllogism due to ignorance of the facts. Third, the incontinent
person may be emotionally excited or mentally disturbed and therefore unable
to think clearly. Fourth, desire may cause a person to act hastily
without self-restraint or more careful reasoning.
A person who shows excessive desire for the pleasures
of victory, honor, or wealth is called incontinent with qualification:
“incontinent with respect to victory,” for example. By contrast,
a person who shows excessive desire for bodily pleasure, such as
sex or food, is simply called incontinent without qualification.
Incontinence with qualification is not real incontinence, but is
only called incontinence by analogy to incontinence without qualification.
Licentiousness and incontinence are closely connected, though the licentious
person acts out of choice while the incontinent person lacks such
self-control.
It is more forgivable to be incontinent as a result of
temper than desire. A person with a short temper is reasonable up
to a point, but the person who gives in to desire is entirely unreasonable.
Furthermore, being incontinent is better than being licentious,
since it is better to do bad things from lack of self-control than
from conscious choice. Continence is preferable to endurance, since
continence involves conquering the pull of desires rather than just
enduring them. The opposite of endurance is softness or effeminacy,
where a person is unable to bear the sorts of pains most people
can.
The licentious person is more easily reformed than the
incontinent person, because he or she acts from choice and can be
reasoned with. The licentious person is wicked, while the incontinent
person does wicked things without being willfully wicked.
