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Aristotle Is Wrong about Incontinence Aristotle is wrong about incontinence. A bold statement, sure, but one that needs to be made. In Aristotle’s   Nicomachean Ethics , he attempts to define three things to avoid and their opposites. The things to avoid are “vice, lack of self-restraint, and brutishness” (1145a17). Aristotle also says, “The contraries of two of these are clear: the one contrary we call virtue, the other self-restraint” (1145a17-18). Self-restraint parallels continence, and lack of self-restraint parallels incontinence. While Aristotle claims that lack of self-restraint is something to avoid, he gives plenty of examples where it is forgivable. How can someone conclude that something is bad, do it anyway, and not be considered vicious? Aristotle writes, “First, then, is to examine whether those who act without self-restraint do so knowingly or not, and how they might do so knowingly” (1146b8-9). It should be an established logic that if you know that something...