Eight chapters of Maimonides on Ethics/Chapter III
Chapter III
Concerning the Diseases of the Soul[1]
The ancients[2] maintained that the soul, like the body, is subject to good health and illness. The soul’s healthful state is due to its condition, and that of its faculties, by which it constantly does what is right, and performs what is proper, while the illness of the soul is occasioned by its condition, and that of its faculties, which results in its constantly doing wrong, and performing actions that are improper.[3] The science of medicine investigates the health of the body. Now, just as those, who are physically ill, imagine that, on account of their vitiated tastes, the sweet is bitter and the bitter is sweet—and likewise fancy the wholesome to be unwholesome—and just as their desire grows stronger, and their enjoyment increases for such things as dust, coal, very acidic and sour foods, and the like—which the healthy loathe and refuse, as they are not only not beneficial even to the healthy, but possibly harmful—so those whose souls are ill, that is the wicked and the morally perverted, imagine that the bad is good, and that the good is bad. The wicked man, moreover, continually longs for excesses which are really pernicious, but which, on account of the illness of his soul, he considers to be good.[4] Likewise, just as when people, unacquainted with the science of medicine, realize that they are sick, and consult a physician, who tells them what they must do, forbidding them to partake of that which they imagine beneficial, and prescribing for them things which are unpleasant and bitter, in order that their bodies may become healthy, and that they may again choose the good and spurn the bad, so those whose souls become ill should consult the sages, the moral physicians, who will advise them against indulging in those evils which they (the morally ill) think are good, so that they may be healed by that art of which I shall speak in the next chapter, and through which the moral qualities are restored to their normal condition. But, if he who is morally sick be not aware of his illness, imagining that he is well, or, being aware of it, does not seek a remedy, his end will be similar to that of one, who, suffering from bodily ailment, yet continuing to indulge himself, neglects to be cured, and who in consequence surely meets an untimely death.
Those who know that they are in a diseased state, but nevertheless yield to their inordinate passions, are described in the truthful Law which quotes their own words, “Though I walk in the stubborness of my heart, in order that the indulgence of the passions may appease the thirst for them.”[5] This means that, intending to quench the thirst, it is, on the contrary, intensifed. He who is ignorant of his illness is spoken of in many places by Solomon, who says, “The way of the fool is straight in his own eyes, but he who hearkeneth unto counsel is wise”.[6] This means that he who listens to the counsel of the sage is wise, for the sage teaches him the way that is actually right, and not the one that he (the morally ill) erroneously considers to be such. Solomon also says, “There is many a way which seemeth even before a man; but its ends are ways unto death”.[7] Again, in regard to these who are morally ill, in that they do not know what is injurious from that which is beneficial, he says, “The way of the wicked is like darkness; they do not know against what they stumble.”[8]
The art of healing the diseases of the soul will, however, form the subject-matter of the fourth chapter.
- ↑ For a discussion of the contents of this chapter, see Jaraczewski, ZPhKr., XLVI pp. 10—11; and Rosin, Ethik, p. 77 ff. A short summary is contained in H. Deot, II, 1.
- ↑ See Foreword, p. 35 n. 3.
- ↑ Cf. Pirḳe Mosheh, in Ḳobeẓ, II, 20b, אמר משה מן הידוע מאמר הפילוסופים שיש לנפש בריאות וחולי וכ׳.
- ↑ Aristotle, in discussing Pleasures (Eth. Nic., X, 5), says, “Yet in the case of human creatures they (pleasures) differ not a little; for the very same things please some and pain others; and what are painful and hateful to some are pleasant to and liked by others. The same is the case with sweet things; the same will not seem so to the man in a fever as to him who is in health; nor will the invalid and the person in robust health have the same notion of warmth. The same is the case with other things also.” Cf., also, H. Deot, II, 1, “To those who are diseased the bitter tastes sweet and the sweet bitter. Some sick people, moreover, crave and long for food that is unfit to eat, such as dust and charcoal, spurning food that is beneficial, such as bread and meat, according to the intensity of their illness. Likewise, people whose souls are diseased desire and love evil characteristics, and hate the moral path, being loathe to pursue it, since, on account of their illness, it is very difficult for them to do so. Thus, Isaiah says of such people, ‘Wo unto those that say of the evil it is good, and of the good it is evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter’ (V, 20). Concerning them it is also said that ‘(they are those) who leave the path of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness’ (Prov. II, 13).”
- ↑ Dt. XXIX, 18.
- ↑ Prov. XII, 15.
- ↑ Ibid., XIV, 12.
- ↑ Ibid., IV, 19. Cf. H. Deot, II, 1, “What is the remedy for those whose souls are diseased? Let them consult the sages who are the physicians of the soul, who will cure their disease by teaching them those characteristics by which they may return to the moral path, and recognize their evil traits. Concerning those who do not seek the sages in order to be cured, Solomon says, ‘wisdom and instruction fools despise’ (Prov. I, 7)”. The conception of a spiritual healing originated neither with Aristotle nor with M. There are many biblical passages based on such a comparison with the healing art, as Jer. III, 22: ארפה משובותיכם; Hos. XIV, 5: ארפא משובתם Ps. XLI, 5: ארפאה נפשי כי חטאתי לך, etc. Rosin, Ethik, p. 78, n. 4, refers to similar passages in Hebrew, Greek, and Arabic literature.