Evil in Aristotle

Cambridge University Press, 2/22/2018
EAN 9781107161979, ISBN10: 1107161975

Hardcover, 284 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm
Language: English

Aristotle's notion of evil is highly elaborate and attractive, yet has been largely overlooked by philosophers. While most recent studies of evil focus on modern understandings of the concept, this volume shows that Aristotle's theory is an invaluable resource for our contemporary understanding of it. Twelve leading scholars reconstruct the account of evil latent in Aristotle's metaphysics, biology, psychology, ethics, and politics, and detect Aristotelian patterns of thought that operate at certain landmark moments in the history of philosophy from ancient thought to modern day debates. The book pays particular attention to Aristotle's understanding of 'radical evil', an important and much disputed topic. Original and systematic, this study is the first to provide a full exploration of evil in Aristotle's work, shedding light on its content, potential, and influence. The volume will appeal to scholars of ancient Greek philosophy as well as to moral philosophers and to historians of philosophy.

Introduction Pavlos Kontos
Part I. Kakon in Aristotle's Metaphysics and Biology
1. Good and bad in Aristotle C. D. C. Reeve
2. Badness as posteriority to capacity in metaphysics Theta 9 Jonathan Beere
3. The good, the bad, and the ugly
natural teleology and its failures in Aristotle Stasinos Stavrianeas
Part II. Kakon in Aristotle's Practical Philosophy
4. Radical evil in Aristotle's Ethics and Politics Pavlos Kontos
5. Aristotelian demons Howard J. Curzer
6. Aristotle on psychopathology Giles Pearson
7. Aristotle on enduring evils while staying happy Marta Jimenez
8. The political kakon
the lowest forms of constitutions Richard Kraut
Part III. The Presence of Aristotle in Post-Aristotelian Philosophy
9. Plotinus against Aristotle on the problem of evil Paul Kalligas
10. Being bad
Aristotelian resonances in Aquinas' conception of evil Kevin L. Flannery, S.J.
11. Virtue and vice in Aristotle and Kant Stephen Engstrom
12. Practical unintelligence and the vices Daniel C. Russell.