ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the place of contrariety in Aristotle's ethics. He based ethics on psychology which enabled him to extend the concept of mesotis to the field of morality. Mesotis turns out to be an ideal guide for balance and harmony between contrary courses of action. In sensation, mesotis is a condition and a beginning inherent in the psychological processes of elementary cognition. The plurality of powers and activities and their inherent indeterminateness necessitate in each case a mesotis for effective moral conduct. Between intelligence as a power and as a fulfilment there lies the entire range of conduct in all its dramatic and problematic setting. The beginning of moral conduct and awareness of its range involve by necessity the faculty of intelligence as an initial, final, and formal factor, because activity as moral conduct is totally dependent upon the actualization of intelligence.
