The Virtue of Temperance in Josef Pieper’s View

Abstract

Josef Pieper (1904-1997) is a German Catholic philosopher, one of the main popularizers of the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas in the 20th century. The article analyses the virtue of moderation as seen by the mentioned thinker. The following methods were used: critical analysis of sources and deductive method, and then, by means of a synthetic method, the issues taken up in terms of content were organized. For J. Pieper, however, human activity – due to its rationality – should be directed towards the good. Hence, the discipline of temperance is necessary. The achievement of this goal is realized through the person’s deeds. It involves constantly choosing the good, mastering lust and the destructive power of sin. A person’s entire life is connected with undertaking toil and struggle for human maturity. The practice of temperance is essentially the realization of the personal self, characterized by the need to preserve one’s identity as a rational, spiritual being. The practice of temperance leads to freedom. It is the freedom of true self-realization, the freedom to fulfi l one’s humanity.