Practices of Reason Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics

by Reeve, C. D. C.

• ISBN13: 9780198235651
• ISBN10: 0198235658
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1995-05-25
• Publisher: Clarendon Press

Summary

This book is an exploration of the epistemological, metaphysical, and psychological foundations of the Nicomachean Ethics . In a striking reversal of current orthodoxy, Reeve argues that scientific knowledge ( episteme ) is possible in ethics, that dialectic and understanding ( nous ) play essentially the same role in ethics as in an Aristotelian science, and that the distinctive role of practical wisdom ( phronesis ) is to use the knowledge of universals provided by science, dialectic, and understanding so as to best promote happiness ( eudaimonia ) in particular circumstances and to ensure a happy life. Turning to happiness itself, Reeves develops a new account of Aristotle's views on ends and functions, exposing their twofold nature. He argues that the activation of theoretical wisdom is primary happiness, and that the activation of practical wisdom--when it is for the sake of primary happiness--is happiness of a secondary kind. He concludes with an account of the virtues of character, external goods, and friends, and their place in the happy life.

Table of Contents

List of Abbreviations	ix
Introduction	1	(6)
1. Demonstration And Dialectic	7	(60)
Unconditional Scientific-Knowledge	7	(6)
Plain Scientific-Knowledge and Hos epi to polu	13	(9)
Ethics	22	(9)
Arguing to a First Principle	31	(3)
Dialectic	34	(11)
The Truth in Phainomena	45	(3)
From Ethical Phainomena to Ethical Endoxa	48	(2)
Ethical Endoxa	50	(6)
Nous of first Principles in Science and Ethics	56	(6)
Dialectic and Nous	62	(5)
Phronesis	67	(32)
Practical Perception	67	(6)
Scientific-Knowledge, Craft-Knowledge, and Politics	73	(6)
Deliberation	79	(5)
Phronesis and the Virtues of Character	84	(3)
Decision	87	(4)
Instantaneous Action and Future Planning	91	(3)
Phronesis and Wisdom	94	(3)
Phronesis as a Virtue	97	(2)
Actions, Ends, And Functions	99	(40)
Actions, Productions, and Ends	99	(7)
The Argument from Politics	106	(8)
Completeness, Self-Sufficiency, and Choiceworthiness of Ends	114	(9)
The Function Argument	123	(5)
Complete Virtues and Complete Lives	128	(3)
Human Beings	131	(6)
The Role of the Function Argument in the Ethics	137	(2)
4. Eudaimonia And Eudaimon Lives	139	(51)
Study	139	(6)
Human or Divine?	145	(4)
Eudaimonia and Eudaimon Lives	149	(10)
External Goods	159	(8)
External Goods and the Virtues of Character	167	(6)
Virtuous Friends	173	(10)
Practical Activity	183	(6)
The Role of the Ethics in the Eudaimon LIfe	189	(1)
Conclusion	190	(8)
Appendix: Form and Matter in Aristotle's Embryology	198	(10)
References	208	(9)
Index Locorum Aristotelis	217	(10)
General Index	227