Orla asked:

I am writing an essay for college on Aristotle's doctrine of the Mean. I would appreciate help in
understanding this doctrine.

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The famous doctrine of the mean states that every human virtue is a 'mean' between two extremes —
one of excess and defect. Each extreme is a vice, and Aristotle examines various virtues in order to
show that this is so. For example courage is a mean between the extremes of fear on one hand and
confidence on the other while modesty a mean between being reserved and being too proud.
Moderation is a mean between indulgence and abstinence. One can think of any number of others.

It seems far from complete however; truthfulness for example does not fit into this scheme. According
to Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics1108) truthfulness comes between boastfulness and false modesty.
But this is a restriction of 'truth' to truthfulness about ourselves. So the resulting theory is a bit bland
and seems to boil down to the claim that sensible and mature reflection is sufficient to answer serious
ethical questions.

Aristotle notes that it is difficult to apply these descriptions to particular cases and thinks that ethics is
an imprecise discipline; modern moral philosophers think that this is where things start to get
interesting, however, not where they end. To characterise virtues so generally seems hardly
adequate. On a more humourous note, Bertrand Russell gives the example of a mayor who adopted
Aristotle's scheme. At the end of his term of office this mayor announced in a speech that he had tried
to steer the narrow line between partiality on the one hand and impartiality on the other. Russell
would be right to think that 'the view of truthfulness as a "mean" seems scarcely less absurd'.

Adam Gatward