Self indulgence aristotle biography

Chapter 11.

Characteristics of temperance and its opposites, self-indulgence and 'insensibility'.

Of the appetites some seem to be common, others to be peculiar to individuals and acquired; e.g.

the appetite for food is natural, since every one who is without it craves for food or drink, and sometimes for both, and for love also (as Homer says) if he is young and lusty; but not every one craves for this or that kind of nourishment or love, nor for the same things.

Hence such craving appears to be our very own.

Aristotle, virtue ethics pdf

Yet it has of course something natural about it; for different things are pleasant to different kinds of people, and some things are more pleasant to every one than chance objects. Now in the natural appetites few go wrong, and only in one direction, that of excess; for to eat or drink whatever offers itself till one is surfeited is to exceed the natural amount, since natural appetite is the replenishment of one's deficiency.

Hence these people are called belly-gods, this im