CHAPTER THREE: ARISTOTLE and GHAZALI – Epilogue by Masarrat Husain Zuberi, Books and Documents, NewAgeIslam.com

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CHAPTER THREE: ARISTOTLE and GHAZALI – Epilogue by Masarrat Husain Zuberi

By Masarrat Husain Zuberi

The Greeks had a proverbs "Nothing too much" and it took a central place in Aristotle's conception of virtue. To him the moral end is "eudemonia" happiness, the final result of the moral life-an advance on Plato who did not mention the direction in which virtue should be exer­cised. Aristotelian guide is the reason in our "habit of choice," defined by him as the deliberate desire of things in our power after considera­tion of them to by the intellect. He also argues, like a true Greek, in favour of the mean or the middle course, e.g. "Courage" is the posi­tion between rashness and cowardice as "liberality" is between extra­vagance and miserliness. Aristotle, who kept the man more in mind than Plato did, gave him the conduct of a prudent man, by his acquired knowledge through personal experience. He preferred it to the knowledge acquired through the contemplation of the philosopher. The prac­tical ability of an experienced man can show ordinary man just how far each tendency - desire or wish - be allowed reasonable play in the virtuous conduct in life, though he continued to subscribe to the Socratic view that virtue is knowledge.

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