Bridging the Gap between Aristotle's Science and Ethics

Cambridge University Press, 5/5/2015
EAN 9781107010369, ISBN10: 1107010365

Hardcover, 318 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm
Language: English

This book consolidates emerging research on Aristotle's science and ethics in order to explore the extent to which the concepts, methods, and practices he developed for scientific inquiry and explanation are used to investigate moral phenomena. Each chapter shows, in a different way, that Aristotle's ethics is much more like a science than it is typically represented. The upshot of this is twofold. First, uncovering the links between Aristotle's science and ethics promises to open up new and innovative directions for research into his moral philosophy. Second, showing why Aristotle thinks ethics can never be fully assimilated to the model of science will help shed new light on his views about the limits of science. The volume thus promises to make a significant contribution to our understanding of the epistemological, metaphysical, and psychological foundations of Aristotle's ethics.

Part I. Ethical First Principles
1. Aristotle on principles in ethics
political science as the science of the human good Karen Margrethe Nielsen
2. Practical and theoretical knowledge in Aristotle James V. Allen
3. Aristotle on practical and theoretical knowledge David Charles
4. Virtue and reason in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics Mary Louise Gill
Part II. Enquiry and Explanation
5. Endoxa, facts, and the starting points of the Nichomachean Ethics Joseph Karbowski
6. Scientific and ethical methods in Aristotle's Eudemian and Nicomachean Ethics Daniel Devereux
7. The search for definitions of justice in Nichomachean Ethics 5 Carlo Natali
8. Holding for the most part
the demonstrability of moral facts Devin Henry
Part III. Ethics and the Natural Sciences
9. Aristotle on the biological roots of virtue
the natural history of natural virtue James G. Lennox
10. Aristotle on knowing natural science for the sake of living well Mariska Leunissen
11. The science of soul in Aristotle's Ethics Christopher Shields
12. Luck in Aristotle's Physics and Ethics Monte Ransome Johnson
13. 'As if by convention alone'
the unstable ontology of Aristotle's Ethics Charlotte Witt.