Aristotle and the Sand

One of the most important aspects of my values is a constant quest of self-improvement. Only through self-improvement can you constantly adapt to become the person who you want to be. Everyone makes mistakes, that’s one of the qualities that makes us human. Our great gift is that we can use these mistakes, to learn and continuously better ourselves. We can take the experience with us to always remind us what we did and how we grew. When we learn from our mistakes and make a change, we are most human. That is why I believe that this process must be continuous.

Recently, a friend disagreed with my philosophy of improvement. He responded by telling a tale of a King that would grant a man anything he would wish, for saving the King’s life. The man had an odd request that baffled the King. The man only asked to put one grain of sand on the King’s table. But, each day the King was to put double amount of sand as the previous day. Although, a seemingly meaningless request at first glance, the sand began to add up. Pretty soon the King wasn’t merely putting a few grains of sand, but instead rooms-full, then countries-full, and then the entire world. The moral of the story is by constantly becoming greater, you could bite off more than you can chew.

Although, a nifty story, I think my friend misinterpreted the meaning. I disagree that one should stop improving out of fear of doing too much. Instead, recall Aristotle’s Doctrine of the Means; a doctrine that strove for the middle ground. A popular misinterpretation of Aristotle is that the mean personality trait is always directly in the middle of the two extremes. What Aristotle meant to say, as far as character goes, is having too much or too little of a particular trait is, generally, a bad thing. The sand is having too much of one trait. Constant improvement is when you have multiple options and you continuously choose the option that allows you to become a better person. One cannot become too good of a person, if they are constantly becoming better at balancing their personal traits. One cannot err by picking the best choice. The quest to improve is the same quest as becoming more human. To place limits on ourselves, is to limit the potential of what we can become. But growth can be malignant like the sand, if one is not careful. Growth must always be balanced by reason and seen through the compassion of our ethics. Our growth must make our lives better, not worse. Although, growth has the potential to do both, it seems foolish and inhuman to stop growth out of the fear of a malignant growth. Our humanity demands the courage to face our challenges and grow.