Enkrateia

Holding the line

Enkrateia is self-control: the power to act on one’s better judgment even when strong appetites pull the other way. Aristotle sets it just below full temperance — the continent person still feels the unruly desire and overcomes it, while the truly temperate no longer feels it at war within. It is the contrary of akrasia, the discipline by which the lower parts of the soul are brought under reason.