Again, the man who is a slave to amusement is commonly
thought to be destitute of Self-Control, but he really
is Soft; because amusement is an act of relaxing,
being an act of resting, and the character in question
is one of those who exceed due bounds in respect of
this.
Moreover of Imperfect Self-Control there are two forms,
Precipitancy and Weakness: those who have it
in the latter form though they have made resolutions
do not abide by them by reason of passion; the others
are led by passion because they have never formed
any resolutions at all: while there are some
who, like those who by tickling themselves beforehand
get rid of ticklishness, having felt and seen beforehand
the approach of temptation, and roused up themselves
and their resolution, yield not to passion; whether
the temptation be somewhat pleasant or somewhat painful.
The Precipitate form of Imperfect Self-Control they
are most liable to who are constitutionally of a sharp
or melancholy temperament: because the one by
reason of the swiftness, the other by reason of the
violence, of their passions, do not wait for Reason,
because they are disposed to follow whatever notion
is impressed upon their minds.
VIII
Again, the man utterly destitute of Self-Control,
as was observed before, is not given to remorse:
for it is part of his character that he abides by
his moral choice: but the man of Imperfect Self-Control
is almost made up of remorse: and so the case
is not as we determined it before, but the former
is incurable and the latter may be cured: for
depravity is like chronic diseases, dropsy and consumption
for instance, but Imperfect Self-Control is like acute
disorders: the former being a continuous evil,
the latter not so. And, in fact, Imperfect Self-Control
and Confirmed Vice are different in kind: the
latter being imperceptible to its victim, the former
not so.
[Sidenote: 1151a] But, of the different forms
of Imperfect Self-Control, those are better who are
carried off their feet by a sudden access of temptation
than they who have Reason but do not abide by it; these
last being overcome by passion less in degree, and
not wholly without premeditation as are the others:
for the man of Imperfect Self-Control is like those
who are soon intoxicated and by little wine and less
than the common run of men. Well then, that Imperfection
of Self-Control is not Confirmed Viciousness is plain:
and yet perhaps it is such in a way, because in one
sense it is contrary to moral choice and in another
the result of it: at all events, in respect of
the actions, the case is much like what Demodocus
said of the Miletians. “The people of Miletus
are not fools, but they do just the kind of things
that fools do;” and so they of Imperfect Self-Control
are not unjust, but they do unjust acts.
