Considerações acerca da figura do ágroikos em Aristóteles

Abstract

Aristotle uses the adjective ágroikos, rustic, to characterize two anonymous vices, both in the sense of lacking: one referring to the virtue of eutrapelía, and the other referring to the virtue of temperance. Such thematization hints that we seem to be dealing with the same figure, the same character, who is averse both to the necessary pleasures of the body in general, and to laughter, in particular. This being so, a question arises that deserves examination: why would this frugality of the ágroikoi, praised by Aristotle in his Politics, characterize vices? The present paper proposes to answer this problem, arguing that the solution to such a paradox depends on understanding the deeply political dimension of the virtues in Aristotelian thought.