Confronting Aristotle's Ethics: Ancient and Modern Morality - Hardcover

Garver, Eugene

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0226283984 ISBN 13: 9780226283982

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2006

Synopsis

What is the good life? Posing this question today would likely elicit very different answers. Some might say that the good life means doing good―improving one’s community and the lives of others. Others might respond that it means doing well―cultivating one’s own abilities in a meaningful way. But for Aristotle these two distinct ideas―doing good and doing well―were one and the same and could be realized in a single life. In Confronting Aristotle’s Ethics, Eugene Garver examines how we can draw this conclusion from Aristotle's works, while also studying how this conception of the good life relates to contemporary ideas of morality.

The key to Aristotle’s views on ethics, argues Garver, lies in the Metaphysics or, more specifically, in his thoughts on activities, actions, and capacities. For Aristotle, Garver shows, it is only possible to be truly active when acting for the common good, and it is only possible to be truly happy when active to the extent of one’s own powers. But does this mean we should aspire to Aristotle’s impossibly demanding vision of the good life? In a word, no. Garver stresses the enormous gap between life in Aristotle’s time and ours. As a result, this bookwill be a welcome rumination on not only Aristotle, but the relationship between the individual and society in everyday life.
 

About this title

About the Author

Eugene Garver is the Regents Professor of Philosophy Emeritus 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.

 

From the Back Cover

What is the good life? Posing this question today would likely elicit very different answers. Some might say that the good life means doing good—improving one’s community and the lives of others. Others might respond that it means doing well—cultivating one’s own abilities in a meaningful way. But for Aristotle these two distinct ideas—doing good and doing well—were one and the same and could be realized in a single life. In Confronting Aristotle’s Ethics, Eugene Garver examines how we can draw this conclusion from Aristotle’s works, while also studying how this conception of the good life relates to contemporary ideas of morality.

The key to Aristotle’s views on ethics, argues Garver, lies in the Metaphysics or, more specifically, in his thoughts on energeiai,kineseis, and dynameis—activities, actions, and capacities.  For Aristotle, Garver shows, it is only possible to be truly active when acting for the common good, and it is only possible to be truly happy when active to the extent of one’s own powers. But does this mean we should aspire to Aristotle’s impossibly demanding vision of the good life? In a word, no. Garver stresses the enormous gap between life in Aristotle’s time and ours. As a result, this bookwill be a welcome rumination on not only Aristotle, but also the relationship between the individual and society in everyday life.

From the Inside Flap

What is the good life? Posing this question today would likely elicit very different answers. Some might say that the good life means doing good—improving one’s community and the lives of others. Others might respond that it means doing well—cultivating one’s own abilities in a meaningful way. But for Aristotle these two distinct ideas—doing good and doing well—were one and the same and could be realized in a single life. In Confronting Aristotle’s Ethics, Eugene Garver examines how we can draw this conclusion from Aristotle’s works, while also studying how this conception of the good life relates to contemporary ideas of morality.

The key to Aristotle’s views on ethics, argues Garver, lies in the Metaphysics or, more specifically, in his thoughts on energeiai,kineseis, and dynameis—activities, actions, and capacities.  For Aristotle, Garver shows, it is only possible to be truly active when acting for the common good, and it is only possible to be truly happy when active to the extent of one’s own powers. But does this mean we should aspire to Aristotle’s impossibly demanding vision of the good life? In a word, no. Garver stresses the enormous gap between life in Aristotle’s time and ours. As a result, this bookwill be a welcome rumination on not only Aristotle, but also the relationship between the individual and society in everyday life.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0226283984
• ISBN 13: 9780226283982
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 328