Sydney Smith 
Denysha Taylor Aristotle spoke about the idea of the Golden Mean. This idea of finding your virtue (a behavior that is reflective of elevated morality) is intriguing to me. Aristotle spoke about finding your golden mean or virtue when you are at balance and far from negative aspects of a character trait. One example of finding your virtue would be confidence. If a person is too confident, they could come across as arrogant, on the opposite end of the spectrum, if a person is lacking confidence they come across as being insecure. The golden mean of these two polar opposites is confidence. The extremes of confidence (arrogance and insecurity) are negative but the mean of the two is where the virtue of confidence is found. To me, the search for virtue is a part of the Redemption story. We are all living a life of redemption. In living out this life it is important that we try to find our true calling, our virtue. As Christians, we are supposed live our lives as a reflection of Christ’s love. This includes living a virtuous lifestyle. We are to hold our standards of reality high and aim to find our virtue. A person must be careful of being neither too boastful nor too humble. There must always be a good balance.
The idea of the Golden Mean could also be a part of the Creation story as well. In the beginning as a part of a new creation it was often questioned what is the “good life?” Aristotle could argue that the good life could be achieved by finding your Golden mean. By finding the right balance and living a life of virtue, free from negative human qualities a person has achieved balance and achieved the golden mean. According to Aristotle, this would lead to a life of happiness.
Lindsay Lowe
2:47 pm, 09.08.13
Interesting perspective. I liked what you said relating Aristotle to redemption. My first reaction is to compare “good life” to creation, but I do see what you mean with the golden mean. That idea is very applicable to redemption and our new life.
Savannah Wesley
9:18 am, 09.09.13
I really enjoyed the Idea of the “Golden Mean”. I never connected that with self image or self confidence for some reason! However, I really enjoyed reading this because it opened my eyes to things I would not have seen otherwise.
Kami Earle
5:31 pm, 09.09.13
I really liked this perspective. The Golden Mean is perhaps one of my favorite things I’ve learned in this class so far. And applying this concept to confidence to our ideas of ourselves is an interesting way to look at it.
Mengyuan Tang
5:57 pm, 09.09.13
The idea of the Golden Mean from Aristotle is also intriguing to me. It reminded me of a famous philosopher in my country, Confucius who lived about the same as Aristotle. He had a similar idea about the Golden Mean, called Doctrine of the Mean. With Aristotle, the golden mean or virtue is in the middle and far from tow extremes. Those are great thoughts that you relate the Golden Mean to the category of Redemption and Creation. I think it may also fit into the category of Fall. It is difficult to be at balance. People may easily go to one extreme of lack or the other extreme of excess, which are the opposite of virtue and good.
David McAnulty
11:00 am, 09.16.13
Interesting that you say people at the extremes would “come across as…” The long conversation about virtue over the centuries has wrestled precisely with this idea of true virtue versus appearance of virtue. Aristotle did feel that repeated practice became habit, which in turn formed virtue.