Aristotle
Aristotle devoted book VII of the Nicomachean Ethics to the discussion of continence and incontinence, having previously linked the latter both to prodigality in its effects, and to those dominated by irrational feeling in its failure to obey knowledge of the good: a case of knowing virtue, but not having habituated it to control passion.
Aristotle considered one could be incontinent with respect to money or temper or glory, but that its core relation was to bodily enjoyment. Its causes could be weakness of will, or an impetuous refusal to think. At the same time, he did not consider it a vice, because not a product of moral choice but of a failure to act on one's better knowledge.
Read more about this topic: Incontinence (philosophy)
Famous quotes containing the word aristotle:
“Aristotle and Plato are reckoned the respective heads of two schools. A wise man will see that Aristotle platonizes.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)
“You have both said well,
And on the cause and question now in hand
Have glozed, but superficiallynot much
Unlike young men whom Aristotle thought
Unfit to hear moral philosophy.”
—William Shakespeare (15641616)