Saturday, September 24, 2011

Sophrosyne in modern day

I found it interesting that sophrosyne, in some translations or understandings of the word, means self-restraint or chastity. This definition is very different to me then healthy mindedness or moderation. It's interesting how we confuse these concepts. Something that immediately came to mind for me was women's roles in modern society. More specifically, women are expected to acquire and maintain an ideal body through extreme forms of self-control and self-restraint. Many women completely cut out foods that they enjoy (and here I am not talking about cutting out foods for moral reasons such as animal cruelty) and restrain from eating in front of other people. These behaviors can manifest into an eating disorder. It is sophrosyne gone wrong. We value self-control in our society, but what is wrong with indulgence? On one extreme it can be bad, but there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with allowing yourself to do harmless things that are enjoyable. So, how do people get "self-restraint" from "moderation"? Moderation is a completely different concept. I like the "moderation" and "healthy mindedness" interpretations of the word much better, but it seems as if we often confuse self-restraint for healthy mindedness.

1 comment:

  1. There is certainly a strain in our tradition that valorizes willful self-denial as more praiseworthy than having conditioned oneself not even to be tempted. Such a muscular impulse to purity is not, I think, healthy (or an example of sophrosyne) at all.

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