Anger and Aristotle’s Virtues – Nicomachean ethics

If you cannot be extremely angry, how can you ever challenge injustice the world?

According to Aristotle, one must live in accordance with certain virtues in order to attain happiness. He explains that happiness is the the only “complete end”. That “since there is evidently more than one end, and we choose some of these (e.g wealth), for the sake of something else, clearly not all ends are complete ends; but the chief good is evidently something complete” (Aristotle 117). He continues: “Happiness, no one chooses for the sake other than itself” (Aristotle 118). Unfortunately, according to Aristotle, we cannot really achieve that happiness without respecting and living by certain virtues. And if we do as Aristotle suggests, we can never find out what we truly stand for. We can never combat injustice in the world, because it cannot be challenged without defying one crucial virtue: good temperament.

“With regard to anger” Aristotle writes, “there is an excess, a deficiency and a mean”. The “excess” is “irascibility”, the deficiency is “inirascibility” and the “mean” is “good temper”. If we live by these means, and strive to never be “irascible”, the world will never change. We will all live our daily lives in a facade of “good temperament”, and brush away issues of concern without a second thought.

Every person who has been influential, powerful and admirable has been angry. In fact, the most influential individuals have been just what Aristotle condemns: irascible. Take Gary Yourofsky, one of the most prominent animal rights activists of our time.  He appeared in the Oakland Press in 1999: “Yourofsky traces his interest in animal rights to the early 1990s. His stepfather volunteered as a clown in The Shrine Circus and offered to take him on a tour. Yourofsky said he was shocked to see an elephant chained to a post with scars behind his ears” (Wisely 1). At that point, Yourofsky, realized his discomfort and his anger. Instead of brushing it aside in order to maintain good temperament, he explored it: he began researching animal abuse. “The more he learned, the less he liked. He believes speciesism is a form of discrimination that causes sexism and racism”  (Wisely 1).  Yourofsky was livid. He had identified a huge injustice in our world, and his anger would motivate him to attack it.

“In 1996, Yourofsky founded a group called ADAPTT”, writes Wisely. He continues: “the group, which claims about 1,000 members nationwide, hopes to stop animal use in medical research, product testing, circuses, rodeos and other forms of entertainment” (Wisely 1). Yourofsky transformed his fury into a beneficial organization that improves and protects the lives of other sentient beings.

He has also appeared in the Daily Tribune of Royal Oak Michigan. “For the last two years,” author Cathy Nelson writes, “he has been, arguably, the most recognizable and talked-about member of the animal rights movement in Michigan. Yourofsky’s notoriety was heightened last year when he was sentenced to six months in prison for his part in a 1997 break-in at a Blenheim, Ontario, fur farm where 1,542 caged minks were set free” (Nelson 1). Yourofsky was so angry, so furious that he defied the law. Yet it was well worth it – he was accomplishing his goal.

If  we live in accordance with Aristotle’s virtues to be happy, our “happiness” will render us indifferent. We will never tackle injustice, because we will never allow ourselves to feel the anger needed to identify it.