Iamblichus' Life of Pythagoras, or Pythagoric Life: Accompanied by Fragments of the Ethical Writings of certain Pythagoreans in the Doric dialect; and a collection of Pythagoric Sentences from Stobaeus and others, which are omitted by Gale in his Opuscula Mythologica, and have not been noticed by any editorIamblichus
Philosophy
Iamblichus' Life of Pythagoras, or Pythagoric Life: Accompanied by Fragments of the Ethical Writings of certain Pythagoreans in the Doric dialect; and a collection of Pythagoric Sentences from Stobaeus and others, which are omitted by Gale in his Opuscula Mythologica, and have not been noticed by any editor
Iamblichus
Ethics, Ancient; Philosophers -- Greece -- Biography; Philosophy, Ancient; Pythagoras; Pythagoras and Pythagorean school
Again, so far as anger and desire
govern the reasoning power, effeminacy and incontinence are produced,
which are certain vices. But so far, as they gratify the passions with
pain, knowing that they are erroneous, in consequence of the eye of the
soul being sane,—so far as this is the case, they are not vices. Hence,
it is evident that virtue must necessarily perform what is fit
voluntarily; that which is involuntary indeed, not being without pain
and fear; and that which is voluntary, not subsisting without pleasure
and delight.
By division also it will at the same time be found that this is the
case. For knowledge and the perception of things, are the province of
the rational part of the soul; but power pertains to the irrational
part. For not to be able to resist pain, or to vanquish pleasure, is the
peculiarity of the irrational part of the soul. But deliberate choice
subsists in both these, viz. in the rational; and also in the irrational
part. For it consists of dianoia and appetite; of which, dianoia indeed,
pertains to the rational, but appetite to the irrational part. Hence
every virtue consists in a co-adaptation of the parts of the soul; and
both will and deliberate choice, entirely subsist in virtue.
Universally therefore, virtue is a certain co-adaptation of the
irrational parts of the soul to the rational part. Virtue however, is
produced through pleasure and pain receiving the boundary of that which
is fit. For true virtue is nothing else than the habit of that which is
fit. But the fit, or the decorous, is that which ought to be; and the
unfit, or indecorous, is that which ought not to be. Of the indecorous
however, there are two species, viz. excess and defect. And excess
indeed, is more than is fit; but defect is less than is fit. But since
the fit is that which ought to be, it is both a summit and a middle. It
is a summit indeed, because it neither requires ablation, nor addition;
but it is a middle, because it subsists between excess and defect. The
fit, however, and the unfit, are to each other as the equal and the
unequal that which is arranged, and that which is without arrangement;
and both the two former and the two latter are finite and infinite.[70]
On this account, the parts of the unequal are referred to the middle,
but not to each other. For the angle is called obtuse which is greater
than a right angle; but that is called acute, which is less than a right
angle. The right line also [in a circle] is greater, which surpasses
that which is drawn from the center. And the day is longer indeed, which
exceeds that of the equinox. Diseases, likewise, of the body are
generated, through the body becoming more hot or more cold [than is
proper]. For that which is more hot [than is fit] exceeds moderation;
and that which is more cold [than is fit] is below mediocrity. The soul
also, and such things as pertain to it, have this disposition and
analogy. For audacity indeed, is an excess of the decorous in the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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