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How are you supposed to act when you’re not sure what to do? Every ethical system eventually has to answer this same practical question. Aristotle's answer is the doctrine of the golden mean, that is, the idea that virtue lies between extremes, and that the right response to any situation is neither too much nor too little. This episode unpacks what the mean actually is, why it's not the same as splitting the difference, why the extremes are almost always easier to occupy, and what practical wisdom, Aristotle's master virtue, looks like when it's working. This is Aristotle at his most immediately useful.

Art: Beyond the Pir Panjal; life among the mountains and valleys of Kashmir (1912); Internet Archive Book Images, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

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