Table Of ContentLevels of Argument
Levels of Argument
’
A Comparative Study of Plato s
’
Republic and Aristotle s
Nicomachean Ethics
Dominic Scott
1
3
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Acknowledgements
I have incurred numerous debts in writing this book. It was completed
whileIwasinthePhilosophyDepartmentattheUniversityofVirginia,
and I am grateful to the university for its support, as well as to my
colleaguesinthedepartment,especiallyDanDevereuxandJorgeSecada,
department chair for most of my time there. I also benefited from
teaching this materialin seminars tomystudents,graduateand under-
graduate,especiallyLisaHechtman,IanHensley,GwenNally,Douglass
Reed,andStacieThyrion.
I received encouragement from several colleagues and friends, par-
ticularlyGailFineandTerryIrwin.IwasveryfortunatetobeaVisiting
FellowatMertonCollege,Oxfordduring2010,whereIwasabletofocus
oncrucialpartsofthebook.Alongtheway,somechaptersweregivenas
talksatvariousinstitutions,includingCornellUniversity,CUNYGradu-
ate Center, Johns Hopkins University, King’s College London, Peking
University, and the universities of Cambridge, Oxford, São Paulo, and
Virginia. I would like to thank members of these audiences for their
feedback. Towards the end, Dan Devereux and David Sedley read the
manuscriptinitsentiretyandgavemeextraordinarilyusefulcomments.
IamverygratefultoPeterMomtchiloffforhispatienceandsupportover
alongperiod,andtothetworeadersforOxfordUniversityPress,oneof
whom subsequently revealed his identity as Eric Brown. Their incisive
feedbackhassavedmefromnumerouserrors.Iwouldalsoliketothank
KimRichardsonforinvaluablehelpinthefinalstagesofproduction.
ToLauraBironIowemorethanIcan possiblyexpress; herwisdom,
humour, and forbearance have been a constant support. For her, it has
beenthelongerroute.
This book is dedicated to the memory of my father, Rivers Scott
(1921–2014). He was a man of extraordinary charm and intelligence,
whohadalongcareerasajournalist,literaryreviewer,publisher,editor,
andagent.Brilliantathisjob,hewasnonethelesshappyforotherstotake
the applause. It was he who originally steered me towards the Classics,
andtohisalmamater,Cambridge,whereIwaseducated(thoughhewas
delightedformetopublishwithOxford).Asaneditor,hesethimselfthe
vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
highest standards of insight, clarity, and elegance. If I have come any-
whereclose,letthatbemytribute.
Finally,Iwouldlike tothankthepublishers of theProceedings ofthe
Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy and Oxford Studies in
Ancient Philosophyfor permission toreusetheoccasionalparagraphor
sentencefromScott(2000a)and(2000c)respectively.
Contents
Introduction 1
Part I. Plato’s Republic
1. TheShorterRouteinRepublicII–IV 9
2. TheAdequacyoftheShorterRoute 30
3. TheLongerRoute 42
4. TheRoleofMetaphysicsinRepublicVIII–IX 61
5. TheCaveAllegoryandtheStructureoftheRepublic 84
Part II. Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics
6. PoliticalScienceandtheLongerRoute 105
7. TheLimitsofPrecision 123
8. ExplanationinNEI4and7 142
9. AristotleandtheRaceCourse 168
10. The‘EndoxicMethod’ 187
Conclusion 210
Bibliography 217
IndexLocorum 225
GeneralIndex 231
Introduction
This book is a comparative study of Plato’s Republic and Aristotle’s
Nicomachean Ethics, two of the most important works in ancient
Greek philosophy, and indeed any period of philosophy. Given the
extensive areas of overlap, the scope for comparison is enormous: both
concern virtue, vice, moral psychology, education, pleasure, friendship,
and eudaimonia (‘happiness’), to name the most obvious topics. Of
course, one should not exaggerate the similarity between the two
works; it is not as if the NE was written as a direct response to the
Republic. And there are certainly disparities between the two, which
shouldbeadmittedattheoutset.TheRepublicisaboutdoublethelength
of the NE and this, in part, is because it concerns both the life of the
individualandthatofthestate.ForAristotle,bycontrast,detailedissues
about the state tend to be found in the Politics. In another sense the
Republic seems narrower than the NE, in that its principal topics are
justiceandinjustice,whileAristotleisinterestedinanalysingsomething
more general: the human good, which turns out to include justice, but
onlyasoneofitsmanycomponents.
AnothermajordifferenceisthattheRepublicisadialogue,acarefully
craftedliterarywork,containingmanylayersnotfoundintheNicoma-
cheanEthics.Thedepictionofthecharactersishighlycomplex,asisthe
interplaybetweenthem,andthereaderhastobeawareofthedialectical
context of any particular argument. The Republic is also a work that
drawsonarichliterarytradition,asisincreasinglyrecognized.1Forthese
reasons (and others besides), it offers opportunities for different, but
complementary,typesofanalysis.Butthisdoesnotmeanthatitcannot
bestudiedasaworkofphilosophicalargumentandsetalongsidetheNE.
1 SeeHunter(2012)chapter2.
