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Overview
In this incisive study Sarah Broadie gives an argued account of the main topics of Aristotle's ethics: eudaimonia, virtue, voluntary agency, practical reason, akrasia, pleasure, and the ethical status of theoria. She explores the sense of "eudaimonia," probes Aristotle's division of the soul and its virtues, and traces the ambiguities in "voluntary." Fresh light is shed on his comparison of practical wisdom with other kinds of knowledge, and a realistic account is developed of Aristototelian deliberation. The concept of pleasure as value-judgment is expounded, and the problem of akrasia is argued to be less of a problem to Aristotle than to his modern interpreters. Showing that the theoretic ideal of Nicomachean Ethics X is in step with the earlier emphasis on practice, as well as with the doctrine of the Eudemian Ethics, this work makes a major contribution towards the understanding of Aristotle's ethics.
Synopsis
This is a close and comprehensive study of the main themes of Aristotle's ethics. Sarah Broadie concentrates on what he has to teach about happiness, virtue, voluntary agency, practical reason, incontinence, pleasure, and the place of theoria in the best life. Never forgetting that ethics for Aristotle is above all a practical enterprise, she sheds new light on ways in which this practical orientation affects both content and method of his inquiry. The book culminates in a sustained argument showing how even Aristotle's ideal of theoretic contemplation in integral to his essentially practical vision of human nature. Ethics with Aristotle is a major contribution toward the further understanding of Aristotle's ethics.