11— Reason and Desire: Moral Decisions (Book VII)
1. Hercules am Scheidewege , 160. Although the context is different, the Lover stands at the "two ways" in the Roman de la rose . A fourteenth-century illustration represents Amant in the center between the God of Love on the left and Lady Reason on the right (Brussels, Bibl. Royale Albert Ier, MS 9574-75, fol. 32r). See John V. Fleming, The Roman de la rose: A Study in Allegory and Iconography (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1969), pl. 32. For the history of Lady Reason in medieval literature, see idem, Reason and the Lover (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1984).
2. Because they are used in Oresme's translation, the terms Continence and Incontinence are retained in this discussion.
3. For Aristotle's use of the terms, see Amélie O. Rorty, " Akrasia and Pleasure: Nicomachean Ethics , Book 7," in Essays on Aristotle's Ethics , ed. Amélie O. Rorty (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1980), 267-84. For the history of the terms, see Gauthier and Jolif, Ethique à Nicomaque , vol. 2, pt. 2, 579-81.
4. Ethiques , 542.
5. Ibid., 544.
6. Ibid., 363.
7. According to Menut, the term incontinent is a neologism (ibid., 80).
4. Ethiques , 542.
5. Ibid., 544.
6. Ibid., 363.
7. According to Menut, the term incontinent is a neologism (ibid., 80).
4. Ethiques , 542.
5. Ibid., 544.
6. Ibid., 363.
7. According to Menut, the term incontinent is a neologism (ibid., 80).
4. Ethiques , 542.
5. Ibid., 544.
6. Ibid., 363.
7. According to Menut, the term incontinent is a neologism (ibid., 80).
8. Hercules am Scheidewege , 160, n. 1.
9. Ethiques , Gloss 2, 363-64.
10. The other two modes or states of conduct, the bestial and the heroic, were probably considered by Oresme too extreme to depict in a third zone. Yet he gives Hector as an example of heroic or divine virtue. Oresme notes: "De cestui Hector descendirent les François; ce dit un expositeur, et ainsi le dient les hystoires" ( Ethiques , Gloss 3, 364). Oresme here refers to the legend that the French are descended from the Trojans. This claim, Oresme states, figures in the commentaries on the Ethics of Buridan and Burley (ibid., 364, n. 3). Although Oresme does not refute this claim, he does not accept it either. See Babbitt, who cites the gloss in the context of Oresme's awareness of a national heritage ( Oresme's Livre de Politiques , 67, n. 173). break
9. Ethiques , Gloss 2, 363-64.
10. The other two modes or states of conduct, the bestial and the heroic, were probably considered by Oresme too extreme to depict in a third zone. Yet he gives Hector as an example of heroic or divine virtue. Oresme notes: "De cestui Hector descendirent les François; ce dit un expositeur, et ainsi le dient les hystoires" ( Ethiques , Gloss 3, 364). Oresme here refers to the legend that the French are descended from the Trojans. This claim, Oresme states, figures in the commentaries on the Ethics of Buridan and Burley (ibid., 364, n. 3). Although Oresme does not refute this claim, he does not accept it either. See Babbitt, who cites the gloss in the context of Oresme's awareness of a national heritage ( Oresme's Livre de Politiques , 67, n. 173). break
11. For exemplification and verisimilitude in illustrations of the Roman de la Rose , see the discussion by Fleming, Roman de la Rose , 31-36.