Mediocritas

The first opinion that I have around the mediocre is opinion of Aristotle, that has expressed in the Ethic Nicomacheus , this is the μέσος, this the middle measure this is the balance, interior balance that Aristotle sees as the better wit; in Latin language it is the “mediocritas”, this is something that is in half, for example in a Ode of Horace(b.Ch 65-8), a Latin poet that in a his Ode(10) has he says: “Auream quisquis mediocritatem diligit”, this is: “Everybody loves the mediocrity; it is because  the possibility of solve the problems or other, trough  the right measure; the principal philosophical  note that we must read to understand the concept of mediocritas  in ancient age, is a letter of Seneca(b.Ch 50-40 a.Ch.) to Lucius , his friend, he says: “Who is wise is also moderate; who is moderate is also constant , who is constant is imperturbable ; who is imperturbable  is without sadness ; who is without sadness  is happy; inasmuch the wise is happy”, the last step is an exercise of syllogisms  from Aristotle, mechanical certainly but then enough; in the same letter Seneca, about the peripatetic  school  says: “…they respond in this way, this is of interpreter who is imperturbable, and constant and without sadness so if we call him imperturbable, who is upset rarely and moderately, not isn’t upset ever.” This is the explicit manifest of mediocritas, because Seneca understand that the wit is mobile and hence the man, also wise man has the mobility of wit, whereby the imperturbability is impossible, in fact: “…the human nature denies it, this is that  5the wit of somebody is immune by the sadness; the wise isn’t overcame from the dolor, but he is touched”; it is the directly take again the speculative address of Aristotle but also it anable the identification to the middle; because Seneca sees the speculative description of peripatetic, and describes the moderate reaction of man, that is the medioctitas, in fact in other step: “Trough  we don’t eliminate the passions but we moderate it. During the Middle age the mediocrity has the same meaning; the medieval culture is stemmed directly from the classical culture, in fact Saint Thomas from Aquino(1225-1274), the mediocrity has same valor  of Seneca, the middle way, this the equilibrium that Seneca has expressed because he has took again from peripatetic school; in fact the temperance is the first quality for Saint Thomas. During the Renaissance we can read the Rime of Michelangelo Buonarroti(1475-1564), he used these words for a comparison between the pen and the sculpture: “So as both in pen and ink is the high and the low and the mediocre style, we can think that  during the Renaissance this word has had negative meaning, but it has kept the same valor of ancient meaning, in fact Michelangelo says: “…high and the low and the mediocre” this the third way, neither high nor low, but the middle; hence the same meaning of ancient time.

Alessandro Lusana