a fight, so that victorious over themselves through the virtue of moderation they might obtain a crown” (§5). Though he doesn’t quite come out and say so, it seems that for him, the most admirable people would be the ones who have the worst desires, while managing to prevail in the struggle against those desires.3 While this aspect of Abelard’s moral theory is, to say the least, open to dispute, he has an almost irresistible argument against the idea that desires and motivations make all the difference between good and bad. This is that people sometimes do wrong while acting against their
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