In his Dialogue titled "Timaeus," Plato describes how the universe was created by a skilled
craftsman who reduced the primordial chaos to order by persuading chaos that order is better.
ARISTOTLE 384-322 BCE
For Aristotle, moral virtue is in between extremes of doing, thinking, feeling. To be moral, one must find the balance, the MEAN (Median), the place of harmony between too much and too little.
While you cannot have too much courage, you can have too great an appetite for chocolate.
This balance, which we will SEE in art, has its base in the Sacred Geometry of Pythagoras,
and while it may seem difficult to understand unless you are better at math than I am, it is
possible to SEE how it works in art and architecture, and to understand the principle.
This is an extract from Aristotle's "Nicomachean Ethics Book II."
VICE (Defect) VIRTUE (Mean/The Median) VICE (Excess)
Cowardice (too litle confidence) Courage Overconfidence
Foolhardiness (Too little fear) Courage Cowardice (Too much fear)
Insensibility (Too little pleasure) Temperence Self-Indulgence (too much pleasure)
Meanness (Too little giving) Magnificence Wastefulness (Too much giving)
Stinginess (In giving out large Liberality Vulgarity/Tastlessness (In giving out
sums of money) large sums of money)
Undue humility (Too little honor) Proper Pride Empty Vanity (Too much honor)
In-Irascibility (Too little anger) Good Temper Irascible (Too much anger)
Shamelessness (Too little shame) Modesty Bashfulness (Too much shame)
Surliness Friendliness Flattery
This way of thinking about how to live in harmony is reflected in THE GOLDEN RULE:
"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
The philosophical preference for balance, symmetry, harmony and proportion to produce
order was seen as natural, as something that can be seen in the natural world, in the
proportions of the human body. The mathematical value of Phi (1.618034) linked the parts
of things together in proportional harmony (1 to 1.618034). Classical Greek artists imitated
this natural harmony in the proportions of art and architecture in order to produce the
highest possible human IDEAL of beauty and harmony.
P. 3 The Golden Mean