Temperance Traditionally a capacity to conduct oneself as one judges best when tempted to do otherwise. Temperance is the contrary of weakness of will. It is a moral virtue, is possessed only by individuals who have no improper or excessive desires regarding bodily pleasures and pains; self-controlled individuals have such desires, but they characteristically resist them, acting as they judge best. On more recent views, temperance may be exhibited in any sphere in which motivational states complete with a personals values, principles, or practical judgments, including practical and theoretical reasoning and the gathering and assessment of evidence for motivationally attractive or unattractive hypotheses.
Let's consider situations where we feel tempted to bring up issues of Temperance. Jancy my mother is a diabetic patient due to high sugar; she is always going on diets and is always violating them. She wants to control her sugar and she wants to not succumb to the temptations she feels to eat sugar. However, she almost always succumbs to those temptations. For example, when she sees a piece of chocolate cake, she wants to eat it. Unfortunately, the desire to eat the chocolate cake is generally stronger than her other desire. When she sees a piece of chocolate cake. But after she eats the cake, she feels angry and disappointed with herself. She is likely to say that she lacks temperance. Similarly, Januvarius My younger brother has a bad temper. He gets angry easily and when he gets angry, he becomes violent. Januvarius may say that he lacks temperance.
According to the ancient Greeks, there's a part of a person that reasons or thinks and a part that feels. According to this view in its most general form, reason is a part that thinks, while another part enables us to have such feelings and emotions as the pleasurable sensations we get from having sex, eating, and drinking; desires for pleasurable sensations such as lust; anger or rage; and love or hate. Either our reason rules our behavior or our feelings and emotions rule our behavior. The Greek ideal was to have reason always rule (Controlling behavior) and feelings and emotions to be ruled. In part this was because in their view, reason takes into consideration our long-term interests, while feeling and emotions demand instant gratification regardless of long-term consequence. Reason recognizes that our goal should be happiness over the course of our entire lives, not just for the moment.
According to this view, my mothers desire to control sugar by dieting comes from her reason. Her reason understands that in the long run she will be healthier and happier if she controls sugar and keep it off. But her feelings and emotions disregard this. Because of the part of her, she has a strong urge or desire immediately to eat chocolate cake when she sees it, regardless of the long-term consequence. As for my brother Januvarius, his anger and rage come from his feelings and emotions. His reason should understand that when his behavior is ruled by his anger, he often does things contrary to his long-term interests, things that either are self-destructive or destructive to others.
So far, we have described temperance as a matter of reason, rather than feeling and emotion ruling our behavior. For example, My mother having so much temperance that she has extinguished her desire for chocolate cake so that she is not even tempted when she sees it. Similarly, we could talk of Januvarius having so much temperance that he no longer even feels anger in circumstance where once he would have felt intense rage. Again, it is one part the mind controlling another: reason controlling the very nature and existence of our desires, feelings, and emotions, not supplanting them as ruler of our behavior.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------With Love & Prayerful wishes
Bro.Jose Kaithavalappil(MA Phil)
Dharamaram college,
Dharamaram college po.,
Banglore - 29
ph:- 080 4111 6181
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