Reason and Character: The Moral Foundations of Aristotelian Political Philosophy

328 Pages·2020·1.43 MB·English

by  Lorraine Smith Pangle

Reason and Character

Reason & Character
The Moral Foundations of Aristotelian
Political Philosophy
◉ ◉ ◉ ◉ ◉ ◉ ◉ ◉ ◉ ◉ ◉ ◉ ◉ ◉ ◉ ◉ ◉ ◉ ◉ ◉ ◉ ◉ ◉
Lorraine Smith Pangle
◉ ◉ ◉ ◉ ◉ ◉ ◉ ◉ ◉ ◉ ◉ ◉ ◉ ◉
The University of Chicago Press
Chicago and London
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2020 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any
manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief
quotations in critical articles and reviews. For more information, contact the
University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th St., Chicago, IL 60637.
Published 2020
Printed in the United States of America
29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 68816- 9 (cloth)
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 68833- 6 (e- book)
DOI: https:// doi .org /10 .7208 /chicago /9780226688336 .001 .0001
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Pangle, Lorraine Smith, author.
Title: Reason and character : the moral foundations of Aristotelian political
philosophy / Lorraine Smith Pangle.
Description: Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2020. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: lccn 2019039051 | isbn 9780226688169 (cloth) |
isbn 9780226688336 (e-book)
Subjects: lcsh: Aristotle. Nicomachean ethics. | Ethics, Ancient.
Classification: lcc b430.p255 2020 | ddc 171/.3—dc23
lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019039051
♾ This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48- 1992 (Permanence of
Paper).
for Sophie

Contents
Introduction 1
1 The Task and the Puzzle of Reason in the
Nicomachean Ethics (NE 1 and 2) 13
2 Knowledge, Choice, and Responsibility
for Character (NE 3.1– 5) 65
3 Reason and Purpose in the
Moral Virtues (NE 3.6– 4.9) 103
4 Justice and the Rule of Reason (NE 5) 148
5 Wisdom and Active Wisdom:
The Intellectual Virtues (NE 6) 182
6 Problems of Self- Control (NE 7.1– 10) 231
Epilogue: The Philosophic Life (NE 10.6– 8) 271
Acknowledgments 277
Notes 279
Bibliography of Modern Works and Editions 307
Index 315

Introduction
What does it mean to live a good life? What does it mean to live a happy
life? Can reason guide us to an answer to these questions? To what extent
is reason sufficient to ensure that we live by the insights that it grasps?
About these questions Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics has a great deal
to say, much that we still can learn from, and, despite all the trees that
have been felled and ink spilled in discussing them, more than a little that
we still scarcely understand.
This book is a fresh examination of Aristotle’s teaching on the relation
between reason and moral virtue in the Nicomachean Ethics, taking as
its point of departure the oft- noted but still perhaps not sufficiently ap-
preciated fact that this treatise is the first half of a two- volume work on
political science.1 As such, it lays the foundation for Aristotelian politi-
cal science and in significant ways for the field of political science alto-
gether. The proper aim of the political community according to Aristotle
is to promote the human good; it is the task of the Nicomachean Ethics
to elaborate what this good is. The Ethics lays the groundwork for this
project with its searching analysis of human nature, including the pas-
sions and aspirations that make us political and that make our political
relations so fraught. The Ethics likewise contains Aristotle’s fullest treat-
ment of justice. It explores the deepest presuppositions that underlie our
sense of justice— the way we hold one another responsible for good and
bad actions and good and bad character. It provides Aristotle’s fullest an-
swer to the most radical question about justice, the question of why we
should be just or moral at all, in its teaching on the essential relation of
virtue to happiness. Filling out this answer, it gives a rich, psychologically
subtle, and compelling account of eleven moral virtues, culminating in
Aristotle’s treatment of the highest standard of justice, natural right. And