The Political Dimensions Of Aristotle S Ethics

A study in the best tradition of classical scholarship, showing mastery of commentary and scholarship in eight languages, this book argues that the Ethics is integral to a series of politically oriented philosophical addresses aimed at morally mature political leaders. Bodeus's critical review of the major approaches to Aristotle's texts is an excellent introduction to the subject.

A study in the best tradition of classical scholarship, showing mastery of commentary and scholarship in eight languages, this book argues that the Ethics is integral to a series of politically oriented philosophical addresses aimed at morally mature political leaders. Bodeus's critical review of the major approaches to Aristotle's texts is an excellent introduction to the subject.

Presents the Nicomachean Ethics as a work of political philosophy, emphasizing the interplay between its practical political concerns and its underlying philosophic perspective and arguing that it is rhetorical in the precise Aristotelian meaning of the term.

Examines how Aristotle posits political philosophy and the experience of friendship as a means to bind strictly intellectural virtue with morality. In this book, Ann Ward explores Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, focusing on the progressive structure of the argument. Aristotle begins by giving an account of moral virtue from the perspective of the moral agent, only to find that the account itself highlights fundamental tensions within the virtues that push the moral agent into the realm of intellectual virtue. However, the existence of an intellectual realm separate from the moral realm can lead to lack of self-restraint. Aristotle, Ward argues, locates political philosophy and the experience of friendship as possible solutions to the problem of lack of self-restraint, since political philosophy thinks about the human things in a universal way, and friendship grounds the pursuit of the good which is happiness understood as contemplation. Ward concludes that Aristotle’s philosophy of friendship points to the embodied intellect of timocratic friends and mothers in their activity of mothering as engaging in the highest form of contemplation and thus living the happiest life. Ann Ward is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Politics and International Studies at Campion College at the University of Regina, Canada. She is the author and editor of several books, including Herodotus and the Philosophy of Empire and Socrates and Dionysus: Philosophy and Art in Dialogue.

This wide-ranging collection of essays by European and American scholars presents some of the most interesting and important work now being done on the political philosophy of Aristotle. Part One investigates what is arguably the most urgent and controversial question of concern to students of Aristotle today, namely, the possibility of grounding moral and political action in some version of Aristotelian rationalism. Part Two considers a series of specific questions arising from the Politics and the Nicomachean Ethics, among which are Aristotle's understanding of moral virtue; the problem of evil; justice and the very idea of "common good"; friendship; the status of the philosophic life vis-à-vis the political; and the outlines of the best possible political community. [Contributors include Wayne Ambler, Robert C. Bartlett, Ronald Beiner, Richard Bodéüs, David Bolotin, Hauke Brunkhorst, Eric Buzzetti, Susan D. Collins, Kent Enns, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Louis Hunt, Joseph Knippenberg, David K. O'Connor, Lorraine Smith Pangle, Judith A. Swanson, Aristide Tessitore, Franco Volpi, and Bernard Yack.]

Examines the implications of Aristotle’s political thought for contemporary political theory.

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 - doi...