An Analysis and Criticism of Aristotle's Golden Rule of Moderation

According to Aristotle’s virtue-centered ethical system, the objective of everything is goodness. Among the different objectives, there is one objective which we want it for itself and everything else is for this objective; this is the best and highest goodness called prosperity and felicity. Aristotle believes human’s goodness and felicity is the activity of soul according to virtue; and if there are many virtues it should be in accordance with the best and most complete virtue; and virtue is the habit of choosing a middle-term which is the most correct and rational one. In other words, the definition and nature of virtue is a middle-term which is a good criterion to help us distinguish between virtues and vices in human’s deeds and feelings. Various problems have been posed for the golden rule of moderation which are categorized here in four main groups and investigated as follows:1. Non-generality of the moderation rule;2. Non-proficiency of the moderation rule in ethical training;3. Inconsistence of the moderation rule with nature;4. Contradiction of virtues;