Eudaimonia and Self-sufficiency in the Nicomachean Ethics

Bibliographic Data

ID8096052
AuthorsRobert Heinaman (1University College London, corresponding author)
Year1988
Volume33
Issue1-3
Pages31-53
Publication date1988-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePhronesis (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0031-8868 • E-ISSN: 1568-5284
PublisherBrill (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1163/156852888x00027
OpenAlexW2171177809
LanguageEN
Citations received24

There is a well known difficulty in understanding Aristotle's answer to central question of Nicomachean Ethics:' what is eudaimonia? Some, leaning on Bk. X, chapters 6-8, maintain that Aristotle's answer is contemplation to exclusion of anything else. Others, leaning on Bk. I, hold that eudaimonia includes other goods besides contemplation, especially (what I will call) moral action, exercise of moral virtues. Still others hold that Bk. X contains an exclusive of eudaimonia as consisting in nothing but contemplation, and is not in end reconcilable with Bk. I's inclusive account. At present, a consensus seems to be growing that at least we can be sure that Bk. I propounds an inclusive account of eudaimonia.2 Hence, if Bks. I and X fit together into a coherent account, Bk. X must be brought into line with such a position. I'll call this the comprehensive view of eudaimonia. The comprehensive interpretation relies on a number of arguments to support its of NE I, above all criterion of self-sufficiency laid down at 1097bl4-21. In present paper I will argue that appeal to selfsufficiency as well as other arguments fail to prove comprehensive

Appeal · Contemplation · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Eudaimonia · Nothing · Political science · Virtue · Classical Philosophy and Thought · Philosophical Ethics and Theory · War, Ethics, and Justification · Law · Philosophy

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