Virtue as a remedy
Study the Eight Chapters on the faculties of the soul, the mean and free will, and compare them with Aristotle.
An original introduction. This guide accompanies the work; it is neither the complete text nor a translation.
Situating the text
Written in Arabic as the preface to Avot within the Commentary on the Mishnah, completed in 1168, it draws on Aristotle and al-Farabi without naming them. Samuel ibn Tibbon’s Hebrew translation gave it its familiar title. This ethical treatise introduces the Mishnah tractate Avot through a psychology of the soul’s faculties, a doctrine of virtue as the mean between extremes, and a defense of free choice. Moral training appears as a cure for the illnesses of the soul, much as medicine treats the body.
Following the arguments
Faculties : The soul is one, with nutritive, sensitive, imaginative, appetitive and rational powers; virtue concerns how they are directed. Mean : Virtue is a disposition between excess and deficiency; a deliberate swing to the opposite extreme serves only as a temporary remedy. Freedom : Human beings choose their actions; neither astrology nor divine decree compels anyone to virtue or vice.
Continuing the reading
Read the chapters on the illnesses of the soul and on free will together, and note where the treatise adapts philosophical ethics to rabbinic sources. Written in Arabic as the preface to Avot within the Commentary on the Mishnah, completed in 1168, it draws on Aristotle and al-Farabi without naming them. Samuel ibn Tibbon’s Hebrew translation gave it its familiar title.
In the Eight Chapters, moral virtue is a balance acquired through practice and freely chosen, not a fixed nature.
Your turn to think.
- In what sense are vices illnesses of the soul, and who acts as its physician?
- How does Maimonides defend free choice against astrology and predestination?
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