Obesity Epidemic isn’t a failure of Temperance (NE III.11)

This lecture examines Aristotle's hierarchy of human goods and the virtue of temperance, distinguishing between natural bodily desires (shared by all humans) and cultivated, qualitative preferences (specific to individuals and cultures). The instructor argues that modern obesity is primarily a physiological regulation problem rather than a failure of temperance—true temperance concerns *what* and *how* we consume (choosing refined over base pleasures), not merely *how much*. Jewish dietary laws like kashrut exemplify genuine temperance by imposing qualitative order on eating, though modern food abundance presents challenges even these traditional structures struggle to address.