εγκρατεια

Explanation

Enkrateia is often defined as self-control, but a much better definition is self-governance. The root kratia means government, and is the basis of such words as democracy (demokratia, rule by the people, plutocracy, rule of the rich, etc.).

Many modern psychologists have observed that the human personality is characterized by numerous, more or less distinct 'sub-egos': at various times we are a father, mother, child, teacher, student, worker, friend, enemy, moralist, sensualist, etc. Of great concern is to orchestrate these diverse facets into a harmonious whole, rather than a chaotic jumble of conflicting desires and actions. Effective self-government in this sense is enkrateia; its absence (a chaotic, disorganized personality), or lack of self-government, is called akrasia.

Psychologically, enkrateia can be thought of as the development or emergence a specialized sub-ego, an Inner Governor or Inner Lawgiver, which directs the others. This theme is the topic of Plato's Republic, which, contrary to popular belief, is not mainly about how to design an ideal political state; rather, it uses the example of a physical city-state as a metaphor to understand the principles of inner, self-governance.

This inner governor is sometimes in Greek philosophy called the hegemonikon (i.e., leader; related to the modern word 'hegemony'), although hegemonikon has other meanings as well.

For Plato, the only effective form this inner governor can take is that of a philosopher or lover of wisdom. Yet this philosopher leader has a most difficult task, because other sub-egos, especially those concerned with inordinate self-love and sensual pleasures, are prone to rebellion. Concerning this Plato presents an elaborate metaphor of a ship's captain and mutiny-prone crew:

[488a] ... Picture a shipmaster in height and strength surpassing all others on the ship,

[488b] but who is slightly deaf and of similarly impaired vision, and whose knowledge of navigation is on a par with his sight and hearing. Conceive the sailors to be wrangling with one another for control of the helm, each claiming that it is his right to steer though he has never learned the art and cannot point out his teacher or any time when he studied it. And what is more, they affirm that it cannot be taught at all, but they are ready to make mincemeat of anyone who says that it can be taught,

[488c] and meanwhile they are always clustered about the shipmaster importuning him and sticking at nothing to induce him to turn over the helm to them. And sometimes, if they fail and others get his ear, they put the others to death or cast them out from the ship, and then, after binding and stupefying the worthy shipmaster with mandragora or intoxication or otherwise, they take command of the ship, consume its stores and, drinking and feasting, make such a voyage of it as is to be expected from such, and as if that were not enough, they praise and celebrate as a navigator,

[488d] a pilot, a master of shipcraft, the man who is most cunning to lend a hand in persuading or constraining the shipmaster to let them rule, while the man who lacks this craft they censure as useless. They have no suspicions that the true pilot must give his attention to the time of the year, the seasons, the sky, the winds, the stars, and all that pertains to his art if he is to be a true ruler of a ship, and that he does not believe that there is any art or science of seizing the helm

[488e] with or without the consent of others, or any possibility of mastering this alleged art and the practice of it at the same time with the science of navigation. With such goings-on aboard ship do you not think that the real pilot would in very deed be called a star-gazer, an idle babbler,

[489a] a useless fellow, by the sailors in ships managed after this fashion? (Plato, Republic 6.488; Paul Shorey, translator)

The task is difficult, Plato suggests, but by no means impossible; and, in any case, necessary for happiness.

When other sub-egos succeed in wresting control of the 'ship of the self' from the philosopher leader, chaos results: the personality becomes confused, agitated, and disorganized. In a sense, this is like a kind of death. One goal of philosophy, then, is to keep the philosopher in charge, so that the genuine, authentic personality (i.e., of the harmonized kind, which functions in accord with God's will and Nature), remains in leadership continuously, i.e., a kind of 'deathless' (athanatos; thanatos = death) state.

Approaching the topic in a less mystical vein, Aristotle analyzes and offers many helpful insights about the nature of self-governance.

Reading

• Kraut, Richard. Aristotle's Ethics. In: The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2012 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.).