Aristotle's Ethics Critical Essays

by Sherman, Nancy; Ackrill, J L.; Annas, Julia; Burnyeat, M F.; Cooper, John M.; Homiak, Marcia L.; Hursthouse, Rosalind; Irwin, T H.; Kosman, L A.; Kraut, Richard; McDowell, John; Mele, Alfred R.; Nussbaum, Martha C.

• ISBN13: 9780847689156
• ISBN10: 0847689158
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-12-23
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Summary

The ethics of Aristotle (384-322 B.C.), and virtue ethics in general, have seen a resurgence of interest over the past few decades. No longer do utilitarianism and Kantian ethics on their own dominate the moral landscape. In addition, Aristotelian themes fill out that landscape, with such issues as the importance of friendship and emotions in a good life, the role of moral perception in wise choice, the nature of happiness and its constitution, moral education and habituation, finding a stable home in contemporary moral debate. The essays in this volume represent the best of that debate. Taken together, they provide a close analysis of central arguments in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. But they do more than that. Each shows the enduring interest of the questions Aristotle himself subtly and complexly raises in the context of his own contemporary discussions.

Table of Contents

Introduction	vii
Acknowledgments	xvii
Permanent Happiness: Aristotle and Solon	1	(34)
T.H. Irwin
Aristotle on Virtue and Happiness	35	(22)
Julia Annas
Aristotle on Eudaimonia	57	(22)
J.L. Ackrill
Aristotle on the Human Good: An Overview	79	(26)
Richard Kraut
A False Doctrine of the Mean	105	(16)
Rosalind Hursthouse
Virtue and Reason	121	(24)
John McDowell
The Discernment of Perception: An Aristotelian Conception of Private and Public Rationality	145	(38)
Martha C Nussbaum
Aristotle on Akrasia, Eudaimonia, and the Psychology of Action	183	(22)
Alfred R. Mele
Aristotle on Learning to Be Good	205	(26)
M.F. Burnyeat
The Habituation of Character	231	(30)
Nancy Sherman
Being Properly Affected: Virtues and Feelings in Aristotle's Ethics	261	(16)
L. A. Kosman
Friendship and the Good in Aristotle	277	(24)
John M. Cooper
Feminism and Aristotle's Rational Ideal	301	(24)
Marcia L. Homiak
Suggested Readings	325	(4)
Authors	329