Confronting Aristotle's Ethics: Ancient and Modern Morality

301 Pages·2006·1.11 MB·English

by  Eugene Garver

EUGENE GARVER
CONFRONTING
ARISTOTLE’S ETHICS
Ancient and Modern Morality
CONFRONTING ARISTOTLE’S ETHICS

CONFRONTING ARISTOTLE’S ETHICS
Ancient and Modern Morality
(cid:2)(cid:3)
Eugene Garver
The University of Chicago Press
Chicago&London
Eugene Garver is Regents Professor of Philosophy at St. John’s University in
Minnesota. He is the author of three previous books, including, most recently,
For the Sake of Argument: Practical Reasoning, Character, and the Ethics of Belief,
also published by the University of Chicago Press.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2006 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2006
Printed in the United States of America
15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 5 4 3 2 1
ISBN-13 (cloth): 978-0-226-28398-2
ISBN-10 (cloth): 0-226-28398-4
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Garver, Eugene.
Confronting Aristotle’s Ethics : ancient and modern morality / Eugene Garver.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-28398-2 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-226-28398-4 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Aristotle. Nicomachean ethics. 2. Ethics. I. Title.
B430.G37 2006
171(cid:2).3—dc22
2006009141
(cid:2)(cid:3) The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for
Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments vii
List of Abbreviations of Aristotle’s Works ix
Introduction 1
CHAPTER 1
What Aristotle’sRhetoric Can Tell Us
about the Rationality of Virtue 15
CHAPTER 2
Decision, Rational Powers, and Irrational Powers 47
CHAPTER 3
The Varieties of Moral Failure 69
CHAPTER 4
Passion and the Two Sides of Virtue 95
CHAPTER 5
Aristotle’s Ethical Virtues Are Political Virtues 124
CHAPTER 6
The Ethical Dimensions of Aristotle’s Metaphysics 164
CHAPTER 7
Living Politically and Living Rationally:
Choosing Ends and Choosing Lives 189
Notes 225
Name Index 277
Index of Passages in Aristotle’s Works 281

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
If I were to give a complete accounting of all the debts I’ve acquired in
writing this book, I would have to produce an intellectual autobiogra-
phy. Although I don’t want to do that, I do need to start by acknowledg-
ing discussions and friendships with teachers, colleagues, and students at
the University of Chicago. My earliest teachers about Aristotle and the
Ethics, Richard McKeon, David Smigelskis, Charles Wegener, and Warner
Wick. I regret that only Smigelskis has lived long enough to see this final
product. David Luban, Ed Halper, Doug Mitchell, Wendy Olmsted, David
Reed are former colleagues and students who have given helpful advice, de-
tailed criticism, and great support over the years. My current colleague Jim
Read read a complete draft a few yearsago.
One intense period of rewriting was spent enjoying the hospitality of
the Tantur Ecumenical Institute in Jerusalem. I thank Tantur, and hope
that Jerusalem may once again be a place peaceful enough for endeavors
like this, which must look frivolous in the context of its current problems.
While we were at Tantur, David Burrell read the entire manuscript and gave
extensive and highly useful comments.
Lenn Goodman and David O’Connor have helped with conversations
and comments over the last decade. David Depew and Charles Young have
been extraordinary conversation partners over many more years than that.
Young’s written comments on a series of iterations of the manuscript have
seriously delayed this publication, and I think improved the final version
proportionately.
A Summer Stipend and then a Fellowship for College Teachers from
NEH gave me the time to work without the usual interruptions. I’m grate-
ful to the Endowment, and to Alasdair MacIntyre, Amélie Rorty, and Mi-
chael Stocker for their letters of support, as well as provoking conversa-
tions—inMacIntyre’scase,manyyearsofveryfruitfulconversationsforme.
I owe a large debt to my colleagues in ancient philosophy at the Univer-
vii
viii • Acknowledgments
sityofMinnesota,BettyBelfiore,NormanDahl,andSandraPeterson,along
with the other members of our long-running discussion group. Their con-
versation has provided great stimulation and support over the years. Bel-
fiore and Dahl helped immensely, and in their own very different ways, with
meticulous and spirited criticism of multiple drafts. It is not easy to be
simultaneously supportive and challenging, and I am lucky to have such
friends.
Over the years, I’ve read papers on theEthics, and audiences have sup-
plied different forms of useful criticism. I’ve given talks that in one way or
another led up to this book at the Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy
and the Minnesota Ancient Philosophy Conference, Berry College, Buck-
nell University, Cal State Fullerton, Claremont Graduate School, the Uni-
versity of Georgia, Marquette University, and Skidmore College.
Finally, I must thank again one of my former fellow-students who has
now been an extremely helpful editor for three books. I’m gradually learn-
ing what an editor does, and how excellent Doug Mitchell has been in this
very self-effacing function. The entire staff at the University of Chicago
Press has been exemplary.
WritingabouttheEthicsisaverydifferentexperiencefromwritingabout
theRhetoric, or for that matter Machiavelli’sPrince. I found very little of
the secondary literature aboutRhetoric at all helpful. There is such a rich
tradition of consideration of theEthics, though, producing a large body of
work of high quality, that it would be irresponsible to ignore it. I’ve writ-
ten this book over so many years that some of the secondary literature that
influenced the most no longer appears in the final version. I have tried to
cite only materials that may help the reader orient himself or herself to my
project in relation to others that may be more familiar. Readers should not
assume that approbation attaches to the works I mention, or that works un-
mentioned are in my judgment inferior.
ABBREVIATIONS OF ARISTOTLE’S WORKS
An. Post. Posterior Analytics
An. Pr. Prior Analytics
Caelo On the Heavens [De Caelo]
Cat. Categories
De An. De Anima
EE Eudaimonian Ethics
Gen. An. Generation of Animals
Gen. Corr. De Generatione et Corruptione
Hist. An. History of Animals
IA Progression of Animals [De Incessu Animalium]
Int. De Interpretatione
Mag. Mor. Magna Moralia
Met. Metaphysics
NE Nicomachean Ethics
Part. An. Parts of Animals
Poet. Poetics
Pol. Politics
Ph. Physics
Rh. Rhetoric
Soph. El. Sophistical Refutations
Top. Topics
ix