Sunday, June 24, 2007

Anger and the mean (Aristotle)


Anyone can become angry. That is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the
right purpose and in the right way - that is not easy.
ARISTOTLE , The Nicomachean Ethics


This quotation is given at the start of Dan Goleman's Emotional Intelligence.
It seems to me that what Aristotle is talking about would be described better as "emotional wisdom"

An example of using anger wisely is Betty Williams, one of the Irish Peace Women in the 1970s.
Her anger at seeing at first hand the death of 3 children in the Irish violence was channelled into co-founding the Community for Peace People
Williams and co-founder Mairead Corrigan were awared the Nobel Peace Price in 1977.

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