Undergraduate Course: Virtue, Contemplation, and Happiness: Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics (GREE10040)
Course Outline
| School | School of History, Classics and Archaeology |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics (EN) is certainly the most widely read and taught work of ancient moral philosophy in the English-speaking world. There is good reason for this: it is here that Aristotle addresses fundamental questions about virtue, happiness, and human reason. In doing so, he establishes much of the framework subsequent discussion in ethics adopts. This course closely addresses the development of Aristotle's project in the EN by reading two of the work's ten books in Greek. |
| Course description |
This course intends to introduce students to Aristotle's ethical project through a close reading of two books of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics in Greek, e.g. I and X. These two books, for example, present some of work's most influential discussions, including the 'function argument' of I.7, Aristotle's account of habituation, and the striking connections made between contemplation, virtue, and happiness. They also raise important questions about the work's unity and purpose.
The course's structure is two-fold. (1.) Close attention will be paid to Aristotle's development of his widely celebrated and contested ethical concerns. Here the construction of the work's philosophical Greek, its distinctive conceptual vocabulary, and its method of argumentation will take centre-stage. In tandem with this, we will closely examine how Aristotle's approach to moral philosophy follows from his commitments in his metaphysical, psychology, and biological works. This is only natural as Aristotle is a peculiarly systematic philosopher who draws on connections between different aspects of his body of work. (2.) In conjunction with a broader consideration of the EN, this careful inquiry into its arguments and language will be supplemented by a look at how the EN has fundamentally shaped moral philosophy pursued in its wake. The ancient reception of the Ethics, and the developments of e.g. Thomism and modern 'virtue ethics', will all be considered in light of Aristotle's text. As such, sessions will be devoted to how the work's distinctive framework (i.e. how it ties habituation, the emotions, practical wisdom, virtue and happiness together) structures subsequent traditions of moral philosophy from antiquity to the present.
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Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should usually have at least 3 courses in Greek.
** As numbers are limited, visiting students should contact the Visiting Student Office directly for admission to this course. ** |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- analyse a wide range of primary texts, placing them in their proper literary and historical context
- reflect critically on the set text(s) and the modern debate on the text(s), showing their ability to take an independent and well-argued stance
- show in research-led, argument-driven coursework their ability to conduct a sustained individual enquiry into a particular aspect of the topic
- engage in active scholarly debate with their peers and express their arguments in written form
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Reading List
(1.) I. Bywater (ed.), 1894, Ethica Nicomachea. Oxford: Clarendon Press. (2.) C. Rowe (trans.), 2002, Nicomachean Ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (With philosophical introduction and commentary by Sarah Broadie.) [Course Set Texts]
Berryman, Sylvia, 2019, Aristotle on the Sources of Ethical Life, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bostock, David, 2000, Aristotle's Ethics, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Broadie, Sarah, 1991, Ethics with Aristotle, New York: Oxford University Press.
Cooper, John M., 1986, Reason and Human Good in Aristotle, Indianapolis: Hackett.
Hursthouse, Rosalind, 1984, "Acting and Feeling in Character: Nicomachean Ethics 3.1", Phronesis, 29(3): 252-266.
Korsgaard, Christine M., 1986a, "Aristotle on Function and Virtue", History of Philosophy Quarterly, 3(3): 259-279.
Lear, Gabriel Richardson, 2000, Happy Lives and the Highest Good: An Essay on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
MacIntyre, Alasdair, 1999, Dependent Rational Animals: Why Human Beings
Pakaluk, Michael and Giles Pearson (eds.), 2010, Moral Psychology and Human Action in Aristotle, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Polansky, Ronald (ed.), 2014, The Cambridge Companion to Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Reeve, C.D.C., 1992, Practices of Reason: Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, Oxford: Oxford University Press. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
1. In-depth experience of Aristotle's philosophical Greek.
2. The ability to analyse and engage with close philosophical argumentation.
3. Independence in developing and pursuing research questions within a rich and challenging scholarly tradition.
4. Experience in developing critical assessments in written form that evaluate a range of primary and secondary material. |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Benjamin Harriman
Tel: (0131 6)50 9110
Email: |
Course secretary | |
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