Golden Mean Essay

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Golden Mean

Throughout history, one of the biggest issues that have been perplexing humankind is maintaining balance in everything. Part of the reason for this, is because going to various extremes has been shown to create problems in the lives of individuals. As a result, different philosophers have been focusing on what is known as the golden mean. This is when you are taking the middle road between the various extremes that exist. Once this occurs, is when a person will be able to understand the world around them better by: looking at what is happening and the impact that is having. This is the point that they can make better decisions and understand how to more effectively deal with a wide variety of people. To fully comprehend this concept requires looking at its different views and the way that it can help to improve your overall quality of life. This is when we can see how this approach can help someone to have a sense of fulfillment and happiness about the world around them. (Hans, 1994, pp. 157 -- 275)

The Golden Mean and its uses in Everyday Life

When looking at the golden mean there are different interpretations that have been applied throughout history. The most notable include: the Western and Eastern approaches. While both are very similar, the reality is that there are slight differences in how this philosophy should be applied to everyday life. (Hans, 1994, pp. 157 -- 275) (Marinoff, 2007, pp. 155 -- 167)

The Western Approach

As far as the Western approach is concerned, the idea goes back to ancient Greece.

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This is when Aristotle and his students began to advocate that everyone should be living their lives by having some kind of balance in all things. The reason why, is because many philosophers saw the real times effects that courage would have on society, an individual and their families. What was happening is some people valued courage above all other virtues in society. On the surface, this is not something that is considered to be negative. Instead, it was seen as a concept that was believed to be very noble about life and its underlying meaning. However, as time went by many people felt that courage should be exercised at all times (even when it was not considered to be a prudent decision). This led to various actions that caused someone to show extreme amounts of courage over everything else. The problem was that this basic approach made the underlying situation worse. As, an individual would risk everything they have to demonstrate this attribute. This is troubling, because it meant that there would be actions taken that could cause even more harm to themselves and their families. Once this took place, it meant that these extreme amounts of behavior had negative impacts on: the community, the individual and those they cared about. (Hans, 1994, pp. 157 -- 275)

As a result, Aristotle believed that everyone should have some kind of balance in all aspects of their life. What he determined, is that someone who engages in either extremes will end up in a no win situation. As,.....

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