Aristotle says,
"[Those who are] thoroughly bad and impious . . . are at variance
with themselves, and have appetites for some things and rational
desires for others. . . . incontinent people . . . choose, instead
of the things they themselves think good, things that are pleasant
but hurtful; while others again, through cowardice and laziness,
shrink from doing what they think best for themselves."
9:4
The Apostle Paul (in Romans 7:15-23 of the Bible)
says,
15 I do not understand what I do. . . . 18 I have the desire to
do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. . . . 19 I do not do
the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do - this I
keep on doing. . . . 22 For in my inner being I delight in God's
law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the
law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work
within me.
We are sometimes "conflicted" between what we know we ought to do
(by exercise of our will) and what we want to do (according to our
desires). How do you think Aristotle's explanation of why we are
conflicted in this way is the same or different from Paul's
discussion in Romans 7? Is either one's explanation more correct?
If so, why?