Andre Norton - "Rebel Spurs"

Havelock Ellis - "Impressions And Comments"

Nikolaj Velimirovic - "The Agony of the Church (1917)"

Various - "Up To Date Business"

Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2007
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

Ethics

A >> Aristotle >> Ethics




III. In respect of what is pleasant in daily life: He that is as he
should be may be called Friendly, and his mean state Friendliness: he
that exceeds, if it be without any interested motive, somewhat too
Complaisant, if with such motive, a Flatterer: he that is deficient and
in all instances unpleasant, Quarrelsome and Cross.

There are mean states likewise in feelings and matters concerning them.
Shamefacedness, for instance, is no virtue, still a man is praised for
being shamefaced: for in these too the one is denominated the man in the
mean state, the other in the excess; the Dumbfoundered, for instance,
who is overwhelmed with shame on all and any occasions: the man who is
in the defect, _i.e._ who has no shame at all in his composition, is
called Shameless: but the right character Shamefaced.

Indignation against successful vice, again, is a state in the mean
between Envy and Malevolence: they all three have respect to pleasure
and pain produced by what happens to one's neighbour: for the man who
has this right feeling is annoyed at undeserved success of others, while
the envious man goes beyond him and is annoyed at all success of others,
and the malevolent falls so far short of feeling annoyance that he even
rejoices [at misfortune of others].

But for the discussion of these also there will be another opportunity,
as of Justice too, because the term is used in more senses than one. So
after this we will go accurately into each and say how they are mean
states: and in like manner also with respect to the Intellectual
Excellences.

Now as there are three states in each case, two faulty either in the way
of excess or defect, and one right, which is the mean state, of course
all are in a way opposed to one another; the extremes, for instance, not
only to the mean but also to one another, and the mean to the extremes:
for just as the half is greater if compared with the less portion, and
less if compared with the greater, so the mean states, compared with the
defects, exceed, whether in feelings or actions, and _vice versa_. The
brave man, for instance, shows as rash when compared with the coward,
and cowardly when compared with the rash; similarly too the man of
perfected self-mastery, viewed in comparison with the man destitute of
all perception, shows like a man of no self-control, but in comparison
with the man who really has no self-control, he looks like one destitute
of all perception: and the liberal man compared with the stingy seems
prodigal, and by the side of the prodigal, stingy.

And so the extreme characters push away, so to speak, towards each other
the man in the mean state; the brave man is called a rash man by
the coward, and a coward by the rash man, and in the other cases
accordingly. And there being this mutual opposition, the contrariety
between the extremes is greater than between either and the mean,
because they are further from one another than from the mean, just as
the greater or less portion differ more from each other than either from
the exact half.

Again, in some cases an extreme will bear a resemblance to the mean;
rashness, for instance, to courage, and prodigality to liberality; but
between the extremes there is the greatest dissimilarity. Now things
which are furthest from one another are defined to be contrary, and so
the further off the more contrary will they be.

[Sidenote: 1109a] Further: of the extremes in some cases the excess,
and in others the defect, is most opposed to the mean: to courage, for
instance, not rashness which is the excess, but cowardice which is the
defect; whereas to perfected self-mastery not insensibility which is the
defect but absence of all self-control which is the excess.

And for this there are two reasons to be given; one from the nature of
the thing itself, because from the one extreme being nearer and more
like the mean, we do not put this against it, but the other; as, for
instance, since rashness is thought to be nearer to courage than
cowardice is, and to resemble it more, we put cowardice against courage
rather than rashness, because those things which are further from the
mean are thought to be more contrary to it. This then is one reason
arising from the thing itself; there is another arising from our own
constitution and make: for in each man's own case those things give the
impression of being more contrary to the mean to which we individually
have a natural bias. Thus we have a natural bias towards pleasures,
for which reason we are much more inclined to the rejection of all
self-control, than to self-discipline.

These things then to which the bias is, we call more contrary, and so
total want of self-control (the excess) is more contrary than the defect
is to perfected self-mastery.


IX

Now that Moral Virtue is a mean state, and how it is so, and that it
lies between two faulty states, one in the way of excess and another in
the way of defect, and that it is so because it has an aptitude to aim
at the mean both in feelings and actions, all this has been set forth
fully and sufficiently.

And so it is hard to be good: for surely hard it is in each instance to
find the mean, just as to find the mean point or centre of a circle is
not what any man can do, but only he who knows how: just so to be angry,
to give money, and be expensive, is what any man can do, and easy: but
to do these to the right person, in due proportion, at the right time,
with a right object, and in the right manner, this is not as before what
any man can do, nor is it easy; and for this cause goodness is rare, and
praiseworthy, and noble.

Therefore he who aims at the mean should make it his first care to keep
away from that extreme which is more contrary than the other to the
mean; just as Calypso in Homer advises Ulysses,

"Clear of this smoke and surge thy barque direct;"

because of the two extremes the one is always more, and the other
less, erroneous; and, therefore, since to hit exactly on the mean is
difficult, one must take the least of the evils as the safest plan; and
this a man will be doing, if he follows this method.

[Sidenote: 1109b] We ought also to take into consideration our own
natural bias; which varies in each man's case, and will be ascertained
from the pleasure and pain arising in us. Furthermore, we should force
ourselves off in the contrary direction, because we shall find ourselves
in the mean after we have removed ourselves far from the wrong side,
exactly as men do in straightening bent timber.

But in all cases we must guard most carefully against what is pleasant,
and pleasure itself, because we are not impartial judges of it.

We ought to feel in fact towards pleasure as did the old counsellors
towards Helen, and in all cases pronounce a similar sentence; for so by
sending it away from us, we shall err the less.

Well, to speak very briefly, these are the precautions by adopting which
we shall be best able to attain the mean.

Still, perhaps, after all it is a matter of difficulty, and specially
in the particular instances: it is not easy, for instance, to determine
exactly in what manner, with what persons, for what causes, and for what
length of time, one ought to feel anger: for we ourselves sometimes
praise those who are defective in this feeling, and we call them meek;
at another, we term the hot-tempered manly and spirited.

Then, again, he who makes a small deflection from what is right, be it
on the side of too much or too little, is not blamed, only he who makes
a considerable one; for he cannot escape observation. But to what point
or degree a man must err in order to incur blame, it is not easy to
determine exactly in words: nor in fact any of those points which are
matter of perception by the Moral Sense: such questions are matters of
detail, and the decision of them rests with the Moral Sense.

At all events thus much is plain, that the mean state is in all things
praiseworthy, and that practically we must deflect sometimes towards
excess sometimes towards defect, because this will be the easiest method
of hitting on the mean, that is, on what is right.




BOOK III

I Now since Virtue is concerned with the regulation of feelings and
actions, and praise and blame arise upon such as are voluntary, while
for the involuntary allowance is made, and sometimes compassion is
excited, it is perhaps a necessary task for those who are investigating
the nature of Virtue to draw out the distinction between what is
voluntary and what involuntary; and it is certainly useful for
legislators, with respect to the assigning of honours and punishments.



III

Involuntary actions then are thought to be of two kinds, being
done either on compulsion, or by reason of ignorance. An action is,
properly speaking, compulsory, when the origination is external to the
agent, being such that in it the agent (perhaps we may more properly
say the patient) contributes nothing; as if a wind were to convey you
anywhere, or men having power over your person.

But when actions are done, either from fear of greater evils, or from
some honourable motive, as, for instance, if you were ordered to commit
some base act by a despot who had your parents or children in his power,
and they were to be saved upon your compliance or die upon your refusal,
in such cases there is room for a question whether the actions are
voluntary or involuntary.

A similar question arises with respect to cases of throwing goods
overboard in a storm: abstractedly no man throws away his property
willingly, but with a view to his own and his shipmates' safety any one
would who had any sense.

The truth is, such actions are of a mixed kind, but are most like
voluntary actions; for they are choiceworthy at the time when they are
being done, and the end or object of the action must be taken with
reference to the actual occasion. Further, we must denominate an action
voluntary or involuntary at the time of doing it: now in the given case
the man acts voluntarily, because the originating of the motion of his
limbs in such actions rests with himself; and where the origination is
in himself it rests with himself to do or not to do.

Such actions then are voluntary, though in the abstract perhaps
involuntary because no one would choose any of such things in and by
itself.

But for such actions men sometimes are even praised, as when they endure
any disgrace or pain to secure great and honourable equivalents; if
_vice versa_, then they are blamed, because it shows a base mind to
endure things very disgraceful for no honourable object, or for a
trifling one.

For some again no praise is given, but allowance is made; as where a
man does what he should not by reason of such things as overstrain the
powers of human nature, or pass the limits of human endurance.

Some acts perhaps there are for which compulsion cannot be pleaded, but
a man should rather suffer the worst and die; how absurd, for instance,
are the pleas of compulsion with which Alcmaeon in Euripides' play
excuses his matricide!

But it is difficult sometimes to decide what kind of thing should be
chosen instead of what, or what endured in preference to what, and much
moreso to abide by one's decisions: for in general the alternatives are
painful, and the actions required are base, and so praise or blame is
awarded according as persons have been compelled or no.

1110b What kind of actions then are to be called compulsory? may we say,
simply and abstractedly whenever the cause is external and the agent
contributes nothing; and that where the acts are in themselves such
as one would not wish but choiceworthy at the present time and in
preference to such and such things, and where the origination rests with
the agent, the actions are in themselves involuntary but at the given
time and in preference to such and such things voluntary; and they are
more like voluntary than involuntary, because the actions consist of
little details, and these are voluntary.

But what kind of things one ought to choose instead of what, it is not
easy to settle, for there are many differences in particular instances.

But suppose a person should say, things pleasant and honourable exert
a compulsive force (for that they are external and do compel); at that
rate every action is on compulsion, because these are universal motives
of action.

Again, they who act on compulsion and against their will do so with
pain; but they who act by reason of what is pleasant or honourable act
with pleasure.

It is truly absurd for a man to attribute his actions to external things
instead of to his own capacity for being easily caught by them; or,
again, to ascribe the honourable to himself, and the base ones to
pleasure.

So then that seems to be compulsory "whose origination is from without,
the party compelled contributing nothing." Now every action of which
ignorance is the cause is not-voluntary, but that only is involuntary
which is attended with pain and remorse; for clearly the man who has
done anything by reason of ignorance, but is not annoyed at his own
action, cannot be said to have done it _with_ his will because he did
not know he was doing it, nor again _against_ his will because he is not
sorry for it.

So then of the class "acting by reason of ignorance," he who feels
regret afterwards is thought to be an involuntary agent, and him that
has no such feeling, since he certainly is different from the other, we
will call a not-voluntary agent; for as there is a real difference it is
better to have a proper name.

Again, there seems to be a difference between acting _because of_
ignorance and acting _with_ ignorance: for instance, we do not usually
assign ignorance as the cause of the actions of the drunken or angry
man, but either the drunkenness or the anger, yet they act not knowingly
but with ignorance.

Again, every bad man is ignorant what he ought to do and what to leave
undone, and by reason of such error men become unjust and wholly evil.

[Sidenote: 1111a] Again, we do not usually apply the term involuntary
when a man is ignorant of his own true interest; because ignorance which
affects moral choice constitutes depravity but not involuntariness: nor
does any ignorance of principle (because for this men are blamed)
but ignorance in particular details, wherein consists the action and
wherewith it is concerned, for in these there is both compassion and
allowance, because he who acts in ignorance of any of them acts in a
proper sense involuntarily.

It may be as well, therefore, to define these particular details; what
they are, and how many; viz. who acts, what he is doing, with respect to
what or in what, sometimes with what, as with what instrument, and with
what result (as that of preservation, for instance), and how, as whether
softly or violently.

All these particulars, in one and the same case, no man in his senses
could be ignorant of; plainly not of the agent, being himself. But
what he is doing a man may be ignorant, as men in speaking say a
thing escaped them unawares; or as Aeschylus did with respect to the
Mysteries, that he was not aware that it was unlawful to speak of them;
or as in the case of that catapult accident the other day the man said
he discharged it merely to display its operation. Or a person might
suppose a son to be an enemy, as Merope did; or that the spear really
pointed was rounded off; or that the stone was a pumice; or in striking
with a view to save might kill; or might strike when merely wishing to
show another, as people do in sham-fighting.

Now since ignorance is possible in respect to all these details in
which the action consists, he that acted in ignorance of any of them is
thought to have acted involuntarily, and he most so who was in ignorance
as regards the most important, which are thought to be those in which
the action consists, and the result.

Further, not only must the ignorance be of this kind, to constitute an
action involuntary, but it must be also understood that the action is
followed by pain and regret.

Now since all involuntary action is either upon compulsion or by reason
of ignorance, Voluntary Action would seem to be "that whose origination
is in the agent, he being aware of the particular details in which the
action consists."

For, it may be, men are not justified by calling those actions
involuntary, which are done by reason of Anger or Lust.

Because, in the first place, if this be so no other animal but man, and
not even children, can be said to act voluntarily. Next, is it meant
that we never act voluntarily when we act from Lust or Anger, or that we
act voluntarily in doing what is right and involuntarily in doing what
is discreditable? The latter supposition is absurd, since the cause
is one and the same. Then as to the former, it is a strange thing to
maintain actions to be involuntary which we are bound to grasp at: now
there are occasions on which anger is a duty, and there are things which
we are bound to lust after, health, for instance, and learning.

Again, whereas actions strictly involuntary are thought to be attended
with pain, those which are done to gratify lust are thought to be
pleasant.

Again: how does the involuntariness make any difference between wrong
actions done from deliberate calculation, and those done by reason of
anger? for both ought to be avoided, and the irrational feelings are
thought to be just as natural to man as reason, and so of course must be
such actions of the individual as are done from Anger and Lust. It is
absurd then to class these actions among the involuntary.

II

Having thus drawn out the distinction between voluntary and involuntary
action our next step is to examine into the nature of Moral Choice,
because this seems most intimately connected with Virtue and to be a
more decisive test of moral character than a man's acts are.

Now Moral Choice is plainly voluntary, but the two are not co-extensive,
voluntary being the more comprehensive term; for first, children and all
other animals share in voluntary action but not in Moral Choice; and
next, sudden actions we call voluntary but do not ascribe them to Moral
Choice.

Nor do they appear to be right who say it is lust or anger, or wish, or
opinion of a certain kind; because, in the first place, Moral Choice is
not shared by the irrational animals while Lust and Anger are. Next; the
man who fails of self-control acts from Lust but not from Moral Choice;
the man of self-control, on the contrary, from Moral Choice, not from
Lust. Again: whereas Lust is frequently opposed to Moral Choice, Lust is
not to Lust.

Lastly: the object-matter of Lust is the pleasant and the painful, but
of Moral Choice neither the one nor the other. Still less can it be
Anger, because actions done from Anger are thought generally to be least
of all consequent on Moral Choice.

Nor is it Wish either, though appearing closely connected with it;
because, in the first place, Moral Choice has not for its objects
impossibilities, and if a man were to say he chose them he would be
thought to be a fool; but Wish may have impossible things for its
objects, immortality for instance.

Wish again may be exercised on things in the accomplishment of which
one's self could have nothing to do, as the success of any particular
actor or athlete; but no man chooses things of this nature, only such as
he believes he may himself be instrumental in procuring.

Further: Wish has for its object the End rather, but Moral Choice the
means to the End; for instance, we wish to be healthy but we choose
the means which will make us so; or happiness again we wish for, and
commonly say so, but to say we choose is not an appropriate term,
because, in short, the province of Moral Choice seems to be those things
which are in our own power.

Neither can it be Opinion; for Opinion is thought to be unlimited in its
range of objects, and to be exercised as well upon things eternal and
impossible as on those which are in our own power: again, Opinion is
logically divided into true and false, not into good and bad as Moral
Choice is.

However, nobody perhaps maintains its identity with Opinion simply; but
it is not the same with opinion of any kind, because by choosing good
and bad things we are constituted of a certain character, but by having
opinions on them we are not.

Again, we choose to take or avoid, and so on, but we opine what a thing
is, or for what it is serviceable, or how; but we do not opine to take
or avoid.

Further, Moral Choice is commended rather for having a right object than
for being judicious, but Opinion for being formed in accordance with
truth.

Again, we choose such things as we pretty well know to be good, but we
form opinions respecting such as we do not know at all.

And it is not thought that choosing and opining best always go together,
but that some opine the better course and yet by reason of viciousness
choose not the things which they should.

It may be urged, that Opinion always precedes or accompanies Moral
Choice; be it so, this makes no difference, for this is not the point in
question, but whether Moral Choice is the same as Opinion of a certain
kind.

Since then it is none of the aforementioned things, what is it, or how
is it characterised? Voluntary it plainly is, but not all voluntary
action is an object of Moral Choice. May we not say then, it is "that
voluntary which has passed through a stage of previous deliberation?"
because Moral Choice is attended with reasoning and intellectual
process. The etymology of its Greek name seems to give a hint of it,
being when analysed "chosen in preference to somewhat else."


III

Well then; do men deliberate about everything, and is anything soever
the object of Deliberation, or are there some matters with respect to
which there is none? (It may be as well perhaps to say, that by "object
of Deliberation" is meant such matter as a sensible man would deliberate
upon, not what any fool or madman might.)

Well: about eternal things no one deliberates; as, for instance, the
universe, or the incommensurability of the diameter and side of a
square.

Nor again about things which are in motion but which always happen in
the same way either necessarily, or naturally, or from some other cause,
as the solstices or the sunrise.

Nor about those which are variable, as drought and rains; nor fortuitous
matters, as finding of treasure.

Nor in fact even about all human affairs; no Lacedaemonian, for instance,
deliberates as to the best course for the Scythian government to adopt;
because in such cases we have no power over the result.

But we do deliberate respecting such practical matters as are in our own
power (which are what are left after all our exclusions).

I have adopted this division because causes seem to be divisible into
nature, necessity, chance, and moreover intellect, and all human powers.

And as man in general deliberates about what man in general can effect,
so individuals do about such practical things as can be effected through
their own instrumentality.

[Sidenote: 1112b] Again, we do not deliberate respecting such arts or
sciences as are exact and independent: as, for instance, about written
characters, because we have no doubt how they should be formed; but we
do deliberate on all buch things as are usually done through our own
instrumentality, but not invariably in the same way; as, for instance,
about matters connected with the healing art, or with money-making; and,
again, more about piloting ships than gymnastic exercises, because the
former has been less exactly determined, and so forth; and more about
arts than sciences, because we more frequently doubt respecting the
former.

So then Deliberation takes place in such matters as are under general
laws, but still uncertain how in any given case they will issue,
_i.e._ in which there is some indefiniteness; and for great matters we
associate coadjutors in counsel, distrusting our ability to settle them
alone.

Further, we deliberate not about Ends, but Means to Ends. No physician,
for instance, deliberates whether he will cure, nor orator whether
he will persuade, nor statesman whether he will produce a good
constitution, nor in fact any man in any other function about his
particular End; but having set before them a certain End they look how
and through what means it may be accomplished: if there is a choice of
means, they examine further which are easiest and most creditable; or,
if there is but one means of accomplishing the object, then how it may
be through this, this again through what, till they come to the first
cause; and this will be the last found; for a man engaged in a process
of deliberation seems to seek and analyse, as a man, to solve a
problem, analyses the figure given him. And plainly not every search is
Deliberation, those in mathematics to wit, but every Deliberation is
a search, and the last step in the analysis is the first in the
constructive process. And if in the course of their search men come upon
an impossibility, they give it up; if money, for instance, be necessary,
but cannot be got: but if the thing appears possible they then attempt
to do it.

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