The Author’s Definition of His Task

1 The subject that I am about to discuss is most philosophical, that is, whether devout reason is sovereign over the emotions. So it is right for me to advise you to pay earnest attention to philosophy. ² For the subject is essential to everyone who is seeking knowledge, and in addition it includes the praise of the highest virtue—I mean, of course, rational judgment. ³ If, then, it is evident that reason rules over those emotions that hinder self-control, namely, gluttony and lust, ⁴ it is also clear that it masters the emotions that hinder one from justice, such as malice, and those that stand in the way of courage, namely anger, fear, and pain. ⁵ Some might perhaps ask, “If reason rules the emotions, why is it not sovereign over forgetfulness and ignorance?” Their attempt at argument is ridiculous!^{[a] 6} For reason does not rule its own emotions, but those that are opposed to justice, courage, and self-control;^[b] and it is not for the purpose of destroying them, but so that one may not give way to them.

⁷ I could prove to you from many and various examples that reason^[c] is dominant over the emotions,

The Supremacy of Reason

¹³ Our inquiry, accordingly, is whether reason is sovereign over the emotions. ¹⁴ We shall decide just what reason is and what emotion is, how many kinds of emotions there are, and whether reason rules over all these. ¹⁵ Now reason is the mind that with sound logic prefers the life of wisdom. ¹⁶ Wisdom, next, is the knowledge of divine and human matters and the causes of these. ¹⁷ This, in turn, is education in the law, by which we learn divine matters reverently and human affairs to our advantage. ¹⁸ Now the kinds of wisdom are rational judgment, justice, courage, and self-control. ¹⁹ Rational judgment is supreme over all of these, since by means of it reason rules over the emotions. ²⁰ The two most comprehensive types^[a] of the emotions are pleasure and pain; and each of these is by nature concerned with both body and soul. ²¹ The emotions of both pleasure and pain have many consequences. ²² Thus desire precedes pleasure and delight follows it. ²³ Fear precedes pain and sorrow comes after. ²⁴ Anger, as a man will see if he reflects on this experience, is an emotion embracing pleasure and pain. ²⁵ In pleasure there exists even a malevolent tendency, which is the most complex of all the emotions. ²⁶ In the soul it is boastfulness, covetousness, thirst for honor, rivalry, and malice; ²⁷ in the body, indiscriminate eating, gluttony, and solitary gormandizing.

²⁸ Just as pleasure and pain are two plants growing from the body and the soul, so there are many offshoots of these plants,^{[b] 29} each of which the master cultivator, reason, weeds and prunes and ties up and waters and thoroughly irrigates, and so tames the jungle of habits and emotions. ³⁰ For reason is the guide of the virtues, but over the emotions it is sovereign.

Observe now first of all that rational judgment is sovereign over the emotions by virtue of the restraining power of self-control. ³¹ Self-control, then, is dominance over the desires. ³² Some desires are mental, others are physical, and reason obviously rules over both. ³³ Otherwise how is it that when we are attracted to forbidden foods we abstain from the pleasure to be had from them? Is it not because reason is able to rule over appetites? I for one think so. ³⁴ Therefore when we crave seafood and fowl and animals and all sorts of foods that are forbidden to us by the law, we abstain because of domination by reason. ³⁵ For the emotions of the appetites are restrained, checked by the temperate mind, and all the impulses of the body are bridled by reason.

Compatibility of the Law with Reason

2 And why is it amazing that the desires of the mind for the enjoyment of beauty are rendered powerless? ² It is for this reason, certainly, that the temperate Joseph is praised, because by mental effort^[a] he overcame sexual desire. ³ For when he was young and in his prime for intercourse, by his reason he nullified the frenzy^[b] of the passions. ⁴ Not only is reason proved to rule over the frenzied urge of sexual desire, but also over every desire.^{[c] 5} Thus the law says, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife...or anything that is your neighbor’s.” ⁶ In fact, since the law has told us not to covet, I could prove to you all the more that reason is able to control desires.

Just so it is with the emotions that hinder one from justice. ⁷ Otherwise how could it be that someone who is habitually a solitary gormandizer, a glutton, or even a drunkard can learn a better way, unless reason is clearly lord of the emotions? ⁸ Thus, as soon as a man adopts a way of life in accordance with the law, even though he is a lover of money, he is forced to act contrary to his natural ways and to lend without interest to the needy and to cancel the debt when the seventh year arrives. ⁹ If one is greedy, he is ruled by the law through his reason so that he neither gleans his harvest nor gathers the last grapes from the vineyard.

In all other matters we can recognize that reason rules the emotions. ¹⁰ For the law prevails even over affection for parents, so that virtue is not abandoned for their sakes. ¹¹ It is superior to love for one’s wife, so that one rebukes her when she breaks the law. ¹² It takes precedence over love for children, so that one punishes them for misdeeds. ¹³ It is sovereign over the relationship of friends, so that one rebukes friends when they act wickedly. ¹⁴ Do not consider it paradoxical when reason, through the law, can prevail even over enmity. The fruit trees of the enemy are not cut down, but one preserves the property of enemies from the destroyers and helps raise up what has fallen.^[d]

¹⁵ It is evident that reason rules even^[e] the more violent emotions: lust for power, vainglory, boasting, arrogance, and malice. ¹⁶ For the temperate mind repels all these malicious emotions, just as it repels anger—for it is sovereign over even this. ¹⁷ When Moses was angry with Dathan and Abi′ram he did nothing against them in anger, but controlled his anger by reason. ¹⁸ For, as I have said, the temperate mind is able to get the better of the emotions, to correct some, and to render others powerless. ¹⁹ Why else did Jacob, our most wise father, censure the households of Sim′eon and Levi for their irrational slaughter of the entire tribe of the She′chemites, saying, “Cursed be their anger”? ²⁰ For if reason could not control anger, he would not have spoken thus. ²¹ Now when God fashioned man, he planted in him emotions and inclinations, ²² but at the same time he enthroned the mind among the senses as a sacred governor over them all. ²³ To the mind he gave the law; and one who lives subject to this will rule a kingdom that is temperate, just, good, and courageous.

²⁴ How is it then, one might say, that if reason is master of the emotions, it does not control forgetfulness and ignorance?

3 ¹ This notion is entirely ridiculous; for it is evident that reason rules not over its own emotions, but over those of the body. ² No one of us can eradicate that kind of desire, but reason can provide a way for us not to be enslaved by desire. ³ No one of us^[a] can eradicate anger from the mind, but reason can help to deal with anger. ⁴ No one of us can eradicate malice, but reason can fight at our side so that we are not overcome by malice. ⁵ For reason does not uproot the emotions but is their antagonist.