Aristotle's Doctrine

Aristotle seems to recommend that we always strive to feel neither too much nor too little but rather the moderate amount: hence a little fear but not too much, a little pleasure but not too much, a little anger but not too much.

But there are some situations embodying injustice, which should provoke extreme anger in us, just as there are situations which rightly prompt us to feel extreme fear. The doctrine of the mean involves more than quantity.

The mean, the intermediate, is a matter of having feelings of anger, pity, confidence (and so on) "at the right times, about the right things, towards the right people, for the right end, and in the right way"

The truly virtuous person, however, is not just the one who achieves the relative mean in her feelings and actions. She must also receive pleasure in doing so.

A person, who finds it painful to stand firm in terrifying situations, even if she succeeds in doing so, is nevertheless cowardly. Thus acting virtuously is something that must be done, as it were, in the right spirit.