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Ben Hole, Winter 2016
Office hours after class.
Week, Date
Required Reading
1, 1/5
Syllabus for Phil 340
1, 1/7
Apology (all)
2, 1/12
Meno (70-86); Phaedo (all)
2, 1/14
Republic Book 1 (all); Book 2 (357-376)
3, 1/19
Republic Book 2 (357-376); Book 4 (all)
3, 1/21
Republic Book 4 (all); Book 8 (all)
4, 1/26
Nicomachean Ethics Book 1
4, 1/28
Nicomachean Ethics Book 1-2
5, 2/2
Nicomachean Ethics Book 2-3; Book 6.13
 Finish EN.1
5, 2/5
Nicomachean Ethics Book 3-4
 Start EN.2
6, 2/9
Nicomachean Ethics Book 4
6, 2/11
Anscombe, “Modern Moral Philosophy,” Nussbaum,
“Non-Relative Virtues: An Aristotelian Approach”
7, 2/16
Euthydemus (278-281); Irwin on the Stoics (PDF)
7, 2/18
Stoics (Primary texts excerpts in PDF form)
8, 2/23
Hursthouse, OVE Chapter 9; Annas, “Virtue Ethics:
Which kind of naturalism?”
8, 2/25
Driver, “Virtue Theory”; Hursthouse, “Are the Virtues
the Proper Starting Place for Morality?"
In-Class Paper Conference
 Admin stuff? / Where
we are and what we’re
doing
9 & 10
 Eudaimonia
↓
 Phronesis
↓
 The Moral Virtues
Intellectual vs. Moral
Virtues
1. The good as the aim of action.
5. Differing views of eudaimonia.
a. Every science (techne) and choice (proairesis) aims at some good.
a. Three kinds of lives:
b. The ends of master sciences are preferable to the ends of subordinate ones.
i.
2. Politics as the master science of the good.
ii. the political life
a. Politics is the most sovereign and comprehensive master science.
iii. the contemplative life (to be discussed later)
b. Politics subsumes subordinate sciences such as strategy, oratory, and
household sciences.
c. So the end of politics is the good for humans.
d. Securing this good for the entire polis is nobler and more divine than securing
it for just one person.
3. The limitations of ethics and politics.
a. Ethics and politics are imprecise.
b. So we should be well-schooled and mature before we study ethics/politics.
4. Eudaimonia is the good.
a. Ethics and politics aim at this good.
b. Eudaimonia is what people mean by “living well” and “doing well.”
c. To be a good student of ethics and politics, one must have a good upbringing.
the pleasurable life
b. The pleasurable life is vulgar – not properly human.
c. Grounding the political life in honor is insufficient. The value of honor
depends on who honors you. Some seek honor from unworthy people who
confer honor on the wrong grounds. It is better to seek honor from worthy
people who confer honor on the grounds of virtue.
6. Criticisms Plato’s view.
a. What is the form of a series of numbers?
b. Good has multiple meanings and is used in different ways. It cannot be
something universal, common to everyone.
c. What is the meaning of “things-as-such” (“good-as-such”)? The Third Man
Argument: if good is good because it participates in the form of good, then
there needs to be some other account of good to explain why both good and
the form of good are good.
d. Distinction between what is intrinsically good and what is good because it
is conducive to what is intrinsically good.
1. The good as the aim of action.
a. Every science (techne) and choice (proairesis) aims at some
good.
b. The ends of master sciences are preferable to the ends of
subordinate ones.
2. Politics as the master science of the good.
a. Politics is the most sovereign and comprehensive master
science.
b. Politics subsumes subordinate sciences such as strategy,
oratory, and household sciences.
c. So the end of politics is the good for humans.
d. Securing this good for the entire polis is nobler and more
divine than securing it for just one person.
3. The limitations of ethics and politics.
a. Ethics and politics are imprecise.
b. So we should be well-schooled and mature before we study
ethics/politics.
Teleology
4 Causes
Eudaimonia is the
telos for humans
Teche; politics is the
architectonic techne
3. The limitations of ethics and politics.
a. Ethics and politics are imprecise.
b. So we should be well-schooled and mature before we study ethics/politics.
4. Eudaimonia is the good.
a. Ethics and politics aim at this good.
b. Eudaimonia is what people mean by “living well” and “doing well.”
c.
To be a good student of ethics and politics, one must have a good upbringing.
5. Differing views of eudaimonia.
a. Three kinds of lives:
i. the pleasurable life
ii. the political life
iii. the contemplative life (to be discussed later)
Aristotle’s
methodology:
dialectical and
demonstrative
Surveying endoxa
Best lives
b. The pleasurable life is vulgar – not properly human.
c. Grounding the political life in honor is insufficient. The value of honor depends on who honors you. Some seek honor from unworthy people
who confer honor on the wrong grounds. It is better to seek honor from worthy people who confer honor on the grounds of virtue.
EN.1096a30-1096b5
Form
Sensible
Object1
Sensible
Object2
Sensible
Object3
Plato’s Theory of the Forms
Whenever we can apply a single term to
more than one object, there is a
corresponding Form to that object.
(Ph.100c; Rep.596a)
Eudaimonia is final (not aimed at some other end) and self-sufficient (one only need live a eudaimon
life).
The Function Argument
1. For anything that has a function or activity, its good or excellence (virtue)
depends on that function. (If human beings have a function then the good
of human beings will depend on that function.)
2. The function of anything is something peculiar to that thing.
3. Only humans engage in the kind of rational activity they engage in.
4. The function of man is activity of soul in accordance with reason, or not
apart from reason.
5. The good of man, or happiness, is then rational activity in accordance
with virtue.
“Aristotle is attempting to move from purely descriptive and nonevaluative claims about what the human function is to explicitly
normative conclusions about what is good for men and about how men
ought to live very roughly, the worry that Aristotle attempt s to move
from an 'is' to an 'ought'” (Whiting, 35)
Whiting on the Function Argument
“commentators have often viewed [Aristotle’s] argument as consisting in two moves– first, the move from
(a) what it is to be a man (or the function of man) to (b) what it means to be a good man; and second the
move from (b) … to (c) what is good for man” (Whiting, 34)
1.
Object to the move from (a) to (b).
This move assumes that men, like body parts or tools, have “instrumental functions or virtues which
presuppose their being good or useful for some further ends or purpose” (34) – but the assumption
is false.
2.
Object to the move from (a) to (b) and (b) to (c)
“on the grounds that peculiarity is no recommendation… nor does it follow that it is good for men to
exercise [a peculiar] capacity” (34).
3.
Object to the move from (b) to (c)
“on the ground that even if a good man is one who exercises these capacities, it does not follow that
it is good for any individual man to exercise these capacities” (35).
 EN.1.7
 EN.10.6-8
Howard Curzer: “Criteria for Happiness in
Nicomachean Ethics 1.7 and X.6-8”
10. Can a man be called happy during his lifetime?
a. E.g., Solon told Croesus that he cannot determine whether Croesus is happy until the
end of his life. (Croesus had a great life, which was then destroyed by the Persian War.)
b. Our lives may influence the lives of our descendants.
8. Popular views about eudaimonia confirm this.
a. Three kinds of goods.
i.
external goods
c. We are always vulnerable to bad luck.
d. But the eudaimon person will always be happy in the sense that he lives his life in
accordance with virtue. Living virtuously will shine through bad luck.
ii. goods of the soul
11. Do the fortunes of the living affect the dead?
iii. goods of the body
a. Only in a very weak sense, if at all.
b. Eudaimonia is an activity of the soul, which confirms many popular views.
12.The praise accorded to eudaimonia.
c. This involves practical and theoretical wisdom (phronesis and sophia), which
confirms many popular views.
a. We praise virtuous people because they are virtuous.
b. So too, being a eudaimon is praiseworthy.
d. This also involves acting in accordance with particular virtues, which also confirms
many popular views.
13.The psychological foundations of the virtues.
e. This kind of activity is pleasurable.
a. The virtue in question is of the human soul, not body.
f. External goods (e.g. friends, wealth, noble birth, beauty, etc.) may be necessary for
some virtues.
b. In order to aim at the good, the student of politics must therefore have knowledge of
the soul.
9. How eudaimonia is acquired?
c. The soul consists in two parts: rational and irrational.
a. Is it acquired through learning and discipline or through chance?
d. The irrational part is twofold:
b. Some goods are acquired through chance and these seem to be necessary but not
sufficient.
c. Eudaimonia requires complete virtue and a complete lifetime.
i.
One part is vegetative in nature, such as when we sleep.
ii. Another part seems to partake in reason: reasons and
e. Distinction between intellectual and moral virtues.
appetites.
•
Structure of Aristotle’s Virtue Ethical Theory
•
Review outline
•
Start doctrine of the mean
 “How should I live?” instead of “What should I do?”
 Eudaimonia
↓
 Phronesis
↓
 The Moral Virtues
Intellectual vs. Moral
Virtues

There are many moral rules of thumb, but strict obedience to
rules is bound to lead us into error.

Morality is an imprecise discipline.

Context sensitivity.
Virtue
Sphere of Life
Virtues of feelings
• Courage
• Temperance
Fear/confidence
(Bodily) pleasure
Virtues of external goods
• Generosity
• Magnificence
• Magnanimity
• Proper Pride
Virtues concerned
with social life
• Mildness
• Truthfulness
• Wit
• Friendliness
Money
Honor
Anger
Truth-telling
Pleasure amusements
Pleasure in daily life
Chapters
 EN.2.1.1103a15ff
1.
How a Virtue of Character is Acquired
 EN.2.3.1104b13ff
2.
Habituation
 EN.2.6 (all)
3.
The Importance of Pleasure and Pain
4.
Virtuous Actions versus Virtuous
Character
5.
Virtue of Character: Its Genus
6.
Virtue of Character Its Differentia
7.
The Particular Virtues of Character
8.
Relations between Mean and Extreme
States
9.
How Can We Reach the Mean?
Define virtue
A. State that decides
Consisting in a
mean
C. Relative to us
D. By reference to
reason to which a
prudent person
would define it
B.
Virtues are complex
character traits, or sets of
dispositions, that involve a
person's perceptions,
thoughts, motives, and
behavior.
A. State that decides
Consisting in a
mean
C. Relative to us
D. By reference to
reason to which a
prudent person
would define it
B.


A virtue is a state of
character, a steady
disposition to act, think,
and feel in particular ways.
Virtues direct us to choose
the “mean” between
extremes, avoiding both
excess and defect.
A. State that decides
Consisting in a
mean
C. Relative to us
D. By reference to
reason to which a
prudent person
would define it
B.
There are two conflicting interpretations of the doctrine:
1.
The mean is metaphorical, or a heuristic device for finding the right way to feel and act.
2.
The mean is an actual amount of something.
Most of the literature concerns the strength of the latter, quantitative account.
1.
Hursthouse argues that this view is false, and that interpreting the doctrine quantitatively attributes
a false view to Aristotle.
2.
Curzer responds to Hursthouse by arguing that Aristotle commits himself to a quantitative account,
and that such an account is plausible.
Week, Date
Required Reading
1, 1/5
Syllabus for Phil 340
1, 1/7
Apology (all)
2, 1/12
Meno (70-86); Phaedo (all)
2, 1/14
Republic Book 1 (all); Book 2 (357-376)
3, 1/19
Republic Book 2 (357-376); Book 4 (all)
3, 1/21
Republic Book 4 (all); Book 8 (all)
4, 1/26
Nicomachean Ethics Book 1
4, 1/28
Nicomachean Ethics Book 1-2
5, 2/2
Nicomachean Ethics Book 2-3; Book 6.13
5, 2/5
Nicomachean Ethics Book 3-4
6, 2/9
Nicomachean Ethics Book 4
6, 2/11
Anscombe, “Modern Moral Philosophy,” Nussbaum,
“Non-Relative Virtues: An Aristotelian Approach”
7, 2/16
Euthydemus (278-281); Irwin on the Stoics (PDF)
7, 2/18
Stoics (Primary texts excerpts in PDF form)
8, 2/23
Hursthouse, OVE Chapter 9; Annas, “Virtue Ethics:
Which kind of naturalism?”
8, 2/25
Driver, “Virtue Theory”; Hursthouse, “Are the Virtues
the Proper Starting Place for Morality?"
In-Class Paper Conference
9 & 10
Skip 3.1-5
Tuesday (2/2): doctrine
of the mean, 3.6-12, 6.13