Blog Prompt 14: What is an “incontinent man?” When does a person know what they are doing (that it is right or wrong)? When do we have a choice? Give Aristotle’s position and your own.

Incontinent Man

In Aristotle view of incontinent man is when a man who is someone who’s weak, but has the heart in the right place and are knowledgeable. They’ll know what’s the right thing to do, but won’t take action. It’s like a person who talks about what they’re going to do in a situation, but when in comes to it, in reality they wouldn’t do anything about it from what they said before. The incontinent man is known for a coward because the person will say anything to save themselves and will always put themselves first than others which many don’t have any close relationships. I said this because in my experiences I had seen break ups due to the fact that their partner wouldn’t do anything for their love one such as defending them or not picking any sides. Even when the partner said that they would do it next time.

A choice

Aristotle believes choice is, “…praised for being related to the right object rather than for being rightly related to it, opinion for being truly related to its object. And we choose what we best know to be good, but we opine what we do not quite know.” When a person knows the right or wrong thing is when the realization happens after you had made a choice. Morally, people already know that it’s wrong to do so. It depends on the situation because there are times that people have to do the right thing even when it could hurt someone, but they have the right to know something that’s important to them. There’s always a choice that people make and in every second a choice has been made. For instance, when we decide to get up out of bed or not and deciding whether to sleep early or late at night. The big choices are the hardest ones to make because it’s life changing and once a decision has been made you can’t go back. Every choice is important because it can teach us valuable lessons and what we can learn from of what to avoid in the future. Aristotle has another perceptive on choice which is, “The object of choice being one of the things in our own power which is desired after deliberation, choice will be deliberate desire of things in our own power; for when we have decided as a result of deliberation, we desire in accordance with our deliberation.” Aristotle claims is true because everyone has the power to choose what they desire and follow it unlike the incontinent man who wouldn’t be powerful enough to make a choice they were willingly intended to make.

W/C: 479