Happy Lives and the Highest Good: An Essay on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics

Gabriel Richardson Lear

Published by Princeton University Press 2004

Happy Lives and the Highest Good

An Essay on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics

Gabriel Richardson Lear

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400826087

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About this book

Gabriel Richardson Lear presents a bold new approach to one of the enduring debates about Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics: the controversy about whether it coherently argues that the best life for humans is one devoted to a single activity, namely philosophical contemplation. Many scholars oppose this reading because the bulk of the Ethics is devoted to various moral virtues--courage and generosity, for example--that are not in any obvious way either manifestations of philosophical contemplation or subordinated to it. They argue that Aristotle was inconsistent, and that we should not try to read the entire Ethics as an attempt to flesh out the notion that the best life aims at the "monistic good" of contemplation.

In defending the unity and coherence of the Ethics, Lear argues that, in Aristotle's view, we may act for the sake of an end not just by instrumentally bringing it about but also by approximating it. She then argues that, for Aristotle, the excellent rational activity of moral virtue is an approximation of theoretical contemplation.

Thus, the happiest person chooses moral virtue as an approximation of contemplation in practical life. Richardson Lear bolsters this interpretation by examining three moral virtues--courage, temperance, and greatness of soul--and the way they are fine. Elegantly written and rigorously argued, this is a major contribution to our understanding of a central issue in Aristotle's moral philosophy.

Author / Editor information

Gabriel Richardson Lear is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Chicago.

Reviews

A fine book. Anyone interested in Aristotle's ethics should read it.---Norman O. Dahl, Philosophy in Review

Lear writes very well: she has a gift for choosing the precise word and the vivid illustration. In choosing examples to enforce a thesis she is equally at home in Aristotle's world and in our own. . . . Altogether, this is an excellent book, both in content and in presentation. . . . [An] exciting synthesis of Aristotelian ethical teaching.---Anthony Kenny, Mind

"Richardson Lear's topic—Aristotle's conception of the highest good—is one to which much attention has been devoted recently, and yet she manages to approach it from a fresh angle and to offer a new reading that deserves careful consideration. Her thesis is bold and subverts many other interpretations of the Nicomachean Ethics."—Richard Kraut, Northwestern University

This is an interesting, novel, and well-informed reading of Aristotle's ethics.

The book is rewarding for its close study of several of Aristotle's most vexed passages in an accessible and imaginative way; particularly worthwhile are the discussions of self-sufficiency, . . . the kalon, and 'greatness of soul.'---Julia Annas, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

The book is thorough and . . . very well argued. It is a substantial contribution to the study of Aristotle's Ethics.---Peter Lautner, Classical World

Original and provocative. . . . It is a very important study, fresh and creative, and clearly argued, which all Aristotelian scholars, as well as scholars interested in the history of ethics, should read and meditate on.---Pierre, Destrée, Ethics

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Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Chapter One. Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter Two. The Finality Criterion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	8
Chapter Three. The Self-Sufficiency Of Happiness Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	47
Chapter Four. Acting For The Sake Of An Object Of Love Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	72
Chapter Five. Theoretical And Practical Reason Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	93
Chapter Six. Moral Virtue And To Kalon Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	123
Chapter Seven. Courage, Temperance, And Greatness Of Soul Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	147
Chapter Eight. Two Happy Lives And Their Most Final Ends Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	175
Appendix. Acting For Love In The Symposium Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	209
Works Cited Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	221
Index Locorum Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	229
General Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	237

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