Aristotle and Beyond: Essays on Metaphysics and Ethics

by Sarah Broadie

• ISBN13: 9780521870245
• ISBN10: 0521870240
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-11-19
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Written over a period of thirty-five years, these essays explore the topics of causation, time, fate, determinism, natural teleology, different conceptions of the human soul, the idea of the highest good, and the human significance of leisure. While most of the essays take as their starting-point some theme in Ancient Greek philosophy, they are meant not as exegesis but as distinctive and independent contributions to live philosophizing. Written with clarity, precision without technicality, and philosophical imagination, they will engage a wide range of readers, including scholars and students of Ancient Greek philosophy and others working on more contemporary analytical concerns.

Author Biography

Sara Broadie is Wardlaw Professor of Philosophy at the University of St. Andrews.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. x
Affecting and being affected	p. 1
Backwards causation and continuing	p. 18
From necessity to fate: An inevitable step?	p. 33
Alternative world-histories	p. 50
A contemporary look at Aristotle's changing Now	p. 72
Nature and craft in Aristotelian teleology	p. 85
Soul and body in Plato and Descartes	p. 101
Aristotle and contemporary ethics	p. 113
On the idea of the summum bonum	p. 135
What should we mean by 'the highest good'?	p. 153
The good of practical beings: Aristotelian perspectives	p. 166
Taking stock of leisure	p. 184
References	p. 199
Index of names	p. 202
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