Reason & character : the moral foundations of Aristotelian political philosophy /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:Pangle, Lorraine Smith, author.
Edition:Paperback edition.
Imprint:Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2024.
©2020
Description:319 pages ; 23 cm
Language:English
Subject:
Format: Print Book
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/13718442
Hidden Bibliographic Details
Varying Form of Title:Reason and character
ISBN:9780226833354
0226833356
Notes:Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary:"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 appreciated fact, that this treatise is the first half of a two-volume work on political science. As such, it lays the foundation for Aristotelian political science and, in significant ways, for the field of political science altogether. 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. It provides Aristotle's fullest answer 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"--Publisher's description.
Review by Choice Review

This book consists of a detailed running commentary on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, books 1 through 7 (with a brief epilogue on book 10). In many respects this analysis is not unlike numerous commentaries composed by scholars from the medieval period to the present day, except that Pangle (government, Univ. of Texas, Austin) places particular emphasis on a "politically informed dialectical reading" primarily of Aristotle's conceptions of moral and intellectual virtues and the complex contributions of both reason and passion to the achievement of human happiness. Although Pangle is certainly correct in her claim that Ethics is dominated by the goals of the civic-minded gentleman and by the virtues of the noble statesman and the noble warrior, she engages in little analysis of Aristotle's Politics itself. Thus, this book constitutes an excellent prolegomena to future study of the complex relationship between Aristotle's moral and political philosophy. The bibliography is good but the index is names only. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty. --Paul A. Streveler, emeritus, West Chester University of Pennsylvania

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
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