the reception of aristotle’s ethics -...

THE RECEPTION OF ARISTOTLE’S ETHICS

Aristotle’s ethics are the most important in the history of Westernphilosophy, but little has been said about the reception of his ethicsby his many successors. The present volume offers thirteen newlycommissioned essays covering figures and periods from the ancientworld, starting with the impact of the ethics on Hellenistic philosophy,taking in medieval, Jewish, and Islamic reception, and extendingas far as Kant and the twentieth century. Each essay focuses on asingle philosopher, school of philosophers, or philosophical era. Theaccounts examine and compare Aristotle’s views and those of his heirs,and also offer a reception history of the ethics, dealing with matterssuch as the availability and circulation of Aristotle’s texts during theperiods in question. The resulting volume will be a valuable sourceof information and arguments for anyone working in the history ofethics.

jon miller is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Queen’s Univer-sity, Ontario. His publications include Hellenistic and Early ModernPhilosophy (Cambridge, 2003), Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics: A Crit-ical Guide (Cambridge, 2011), and Spinoza and the Stoics (Cambridge,forthcoming).

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THE RECEPTION OFARISTOTLE’S ETHICS

edited by

JON MILLER






cambridge university pressCambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town,

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Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York

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First published 2012

Printed and bound in the United Kingdom by the MPG Books Group

A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication dataThe reception of Aristotle’s Ethics / edited by Jon Miller.

pages cm.Includes bibliographical references and index.

isbn 978-0-521-51388-3 (hardback)1. Aristotle. Nicomachean ethics. 2. Ethics, Ancient.

I. Miller, Jon, 1970–b430.r385 2013

171′.3 – dc23 2012021837

isbn 978-0-521-51388-3 Hardback

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Contents

Notes on contributors page viiAcknowledgments ixA note on abbreviations and transliteration x

Introduction 1Jon Miller

1 The Nicomachean Ethics in Hellenistic philosophy:a hidden treasure? 5Karen Margrethe Nielsen

2 The transformation of Aristotle’s ethics inRoman philosophy 31Christopher Gill

3 Aristotelian ethics in Plotinus 53Dominic J. O’Meara

4 St. Augustine’s appropriation and transformation ofAristotelian eudaimonia 67Michael W. Tkacz

5 The Arabic and Islamic reception of theNicomachean Ethics 85Anna Akasoy

6 Maimonides’ appropriation of Aristotle’s ethics 107Kenneth Seeskin

7 The relation of prudence and synderesis to happinessin the medieval commentaries on Aristotle’s ethics 125Anthony Celano

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vi Contents

8 Using Seneca to read Aristotle: the curious methods ofBuridan’s Ethics 155Jack Zupko

9 Aristotle’s Ethics in the Renaissance 171David A. Lines

10 The end of ends? Aristotelian themes in early modern ethics 194Donald Rutherford

11 Affective conflict and virtue: Hume’s answer to Aristotle 222Kate Abramson

12 Kant and Aristotle on ethics 244Manfred Kuehn

13 The fall and rise of Aristotelian ethics in Anglo-Americanmoral philosophy: nineteenth and twentieth centuries 262Jennifer Welchman

Bibliography 289Index 307






Notes on contributors

kate abramson is Associate Professor of Philosophy at IndianaUniversity.

anna akasoy is a Fellow in the Faculty of Oriental Studies at theUniversity of Oxford.

anthony celano is Professor of Philosophy at Stonehill College.

christopher gill is Professor of Ancient Thought at the University ofExeter.

manfred kuehn is Professor of Philosophy at Boston University.

david a. lines is Associate Professor/Senior Lecturer in the ItalianDepartment at the University of Warwick.

jon miller is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Queen’s University,Ontario.

karen margrethe nielsen is Associate Professor of Philosophy at theUniversity of Western Ontario.

dominic j. o’meara is Professeur emeritus, Chair of Metaphysics andAncient Philosophy, at the University of Fribourg.

donald rutherford is Professor of Philosophy at the University ofCalifornia, San Diego.

kenneth seeskin is Philip M. and Ethel Klutznick Professor ofJewish Civilization and the Chair of the Religious Studies Departmentat Northwestern University.

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viii Notes on contributors

michael w. tkacz is Associate Professor of Philosophy at GonzagaUniversity.

jennifer welchman is Professor of Philosophy at the University ofAlberta.

jack zupko is Professor and Chair of the Philosophy Department,University of Winnipeg.






Acknowledgments

It is a genuine pleasure for me to acknowledge the enormous help that Ireceived in putting together this volume. Most importantly, I am gratefulto the thirteen contributors themselves, for both their essays and theirpatience. Next, I had to rely on the expertise of many different peo-ple when structuring the volume. I greatly appreciate the advice offeredby Peter Adamson, Julia Annas, Deborah Brown, Victor Caston, BrianCopenhaver, Eyjolfur K. Emilsson, Stephen Engstrom, Lorne Falken-stein, R. J. Hankinson, Rosalind Hursthouse, Brad Inwood, Susan James,Bonnie Kent, John Kilcullen, Christine Korsgaard, John Marenbon,Stephen Menn, Phillip Mitsis, Don Morrison, Steven Nadler, RobertPasnau, and others. My editors at Cambridge University Press, HilaryGaskin and Anna Lowe, have been consistently responsive and under-standing. Jordan MacKenzie and Elyse Platt provided excellent researchand copy-editing assistance. Finally, Queen’s University and SSHRC sup-plied various kinds of financial support. Thanks to all.

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A note on abbreviations and transliteration

Common abbreviations are used when citing works by major figures fromthe history of philosophy. Because it is always plain which work is beingreferred to, a single standard is not imposed.

Also, words from other languages (e.g., Arabic, Greek, Hebrew) areoccasionally transliterated into roman letters. Different transliterations maybe used for the same word. Since the differences do not much matter,consistency across all authors has not been enforced.

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