A Discussion of Mark O’Keefe’s Virtue Abounding Chapter 5 “Temperance”
We reach now the fourth and last cardinal virtue, temperance.
I had an idea that temperance was about being balanced, not being extreme. That it was about not doing too little or too much. And that is kind of what it is, or at least that is a part of it.
I was missing the inner quality of temperance though. It is not just an external action. Looking at its opposite, intemperance can help.
Imbalance, immoderation, and the lack of harmony can be both external and internal. Exterior things can create a sense of chaos around us, even while our interior desires and sense of responsibility can swirl around within us. (p. 69)
Like all the virtues, temperance is focused on us deciding well for ourselves and for those around us.
Guided by the virtue of prudence, we must learn to order our priorities at this moment in our lives with the resources that are reasonably available to us: job, family, volunteer efforts, and healthy self-care. More deeply, we must order and balance our inner desires in keeping with what is really healthy and good for ourselves and those for whom we are responsible. This is the concern for the virtue of temperance. (p. 70)
Temperance is not a word we use a lot today. The first thing I think of when I hear the word is the Temperance Movement that spurred on Prohibition, the banning of the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol in the 18th amendment in 1920, later repealed by the 21st amendment in 1933.
That gives the connotation that temperance is about banning things. In fact, the temperance movement was at first about moderating alcohol consumption, which is in line with the meaning of the virtue of temperance.
According to the first link above, we consumed 3 times the amount of alcohol per person than we do today so calling for moderation makes sense. It later became a movement about abolition.
For Aquinas, temperance is concerned with our desires for things such as food, drink, and sex, but not abolition.
Temperance is not directed to denying, suppressing, or repressing our desires, but to moderating them so that they truly lead us to what is good for us and others in the circumstances in which we find ourselves. Temperance is not the enemy of pleasure, but rather the disposition to find pleasure in the right action at the right time in pursuit of the truly good. (p. 71–72)
Thus, my understanding of temperance was not temperate since I had it associated with abolition. Aquinas recognized our desires as good and thus it was not good to deny ourselves these good things, but at the same, it was not to overindulge.
The virtue of temperance is based on…a sense of what it means to be authentically human, with one’s desires and choices in line with what we know to be truly good for us…In this sense, temperance is a kind of moral integrity, a convergence of our wants and choices with our true good, together with the ability to live consistently in this integrity. Without temperance, we cannot fully accomplish other goods by making appropriate responses. (p. 72)
Related Virtues
In addition to food, drink, and sex, Aquinas notes that anger is a passion that needs temperance. He does not see anger itself as a problem.
For Aquinas, anger is a natural human passion. It can be good or bad. In fact, there are situations of evil or injustice in which anger is the appropriate reaction. It then serves as the power behind the courage which moves and directs us to overcome difficulties to restore justice or accomplish some difficult good. It can actually be wrong not to become angry in some circumstances. But, of course, it must be moderated. (p. 82)
Aquinas calls for two related virtues to temperance in the face of anger: mildness and clemency.
- Mildness: This does not mean timid or submissive like we may use it today but instead even-tempered, not being controlled by anger. (p. 83)
- Clemency: Not letting anger lead to excessive punishment of the guilty but rather the appropriate restitution to the injured party. (p. 83)
Some other related virtues include humility, and studiousness, which O’Keefe says are related to the virtue of modesty, which again is more broadly understood than how we think of it today.
We should develop humility about our abilities so that even as we strive to achieve and push beyond our limits, we can have modesty about our accomplishments. That is, a talented athlete, artist or scholar should be modest and not let his success go to his head. (p.84)
We need to develop studiousness because while it is a virtue to seek knowledge, we need to moderate our desire so we do not seek out things that are not our business that can lead to gossip or a sense of superiority and instead are a sign of an unsettled mind. (p. 85–86)
A vice of studiousness is idle curiosity, which is one that is a big challenge for us today.
Indulging in idle curiosity means spending a lot of our time gaining useless knowledge.
Some people are addicted to the news and endless, repetitive commentaries by “talking heads” on CNN, FOX, or MSNBC. Others can idle away hours watching the Weather Channel to gain knowledge of storms and weather conditions that will not impact them, and about which they cannot do anything. It is easy to get caught up in one Google search after another or in the continuous move from one “interesting” web link to another. (p. 86)
Thus, we need the virtue of studiousness to moderate our tendency to waste our time on idle curiosity.
Finally, modesty does apply to our dress, which is likely the connotation the word first evokes for most of us, but it goes beyond that.
But the need to moderate our external appearance — and the inner desires that direct our choices — is much broader. Appropriate dress must also not be extravagant, merely showy, or designed to promote vanity. On the other hand, the virtue of modesty in dress demands that our attire not be slovenly or dirty. The point here is not merely about fashion or fussiness in dress but rather an external demeanor that reflects a balanced and mature person who is able to intuit what is appropriate to different contexts. (p. 88)
Conclusion
While temperance may be a word that makes us think more of abstaining from all things we desire, that is not at all what Aquinas means. He recognizes that desire is good and the pleasure that comes from the things we desire is good, too. The only problem is when we either intemperately deny ourselves these things or overindulge in them.
Desire is part of being human, but it is not the whole picture. We also have our intellect’s ability to see what is truly good for self and others, not merely pleasurable for me, here and now. And we have the ability of the will to decide rightly how we will act on what we desire and what we perceive to be the true good in any situation. (p. 89)
Since this is being written at the time of the new year and the many resolutions people will make, one example is how we need temperance to stick to the common resolution of losing weight.
We have to eat, and we should enjoy what we eat. But we should also use intelligence to decide to find ways to prepare healthy foods in a tasty manner and not let the convenience and hyper-palatability of processed foods win out.
Temperance orders us from within so that we can act rightly outside ourselves. It is the habitual tendence to seek the balance and inner tranquility which is central to living consistently in a manner truly worthy of the human person. (p. 89)
Reference: O’Keefe, Mark, 2014. “Temperance,” Chapter 5 of Virtues Abounding, Cascade Books.
