Keywords
Aristotle’s criticism of Plato
Plato’s Idea of the Good
praxis
prakton agathon
phronēsis
How to Cite
Abstract
In Nicomachean Ethics 1.6, Aristotle directs his criticism not only against the Platonic Idea of the Good but also against the notion of a universal Good. In this paper, I also examine some of the most interesting aspects of his criticism of the Platonic Good and the universal Good in Eudemian Ethics 1.8. In the EN, after using a series of disputable ontological arguments, Aristotle’s criticism culminates in a strong ethical or rather practical and, simultaneously, epistemological argument, from which a dialectical postulatum emerges. This argument aims to show that we have to discover the dialectical stages or grades which constitute the relation between the ultimate End, i.e., the Good simpliciter or the absolute Good, and the relational goods till the last prakton good in which each specific praxis ends. According to the present reading, Aristotle sets out to establish a kind of Dialectic of the ends (Dialektikē tōn telōn) or Dialectic of the goods (Dialektikē tōn agathōn), which puts emphasis on the descent to the specific good, which is appropriate to and cognate with each individual, be that a person, praxis, science or craft. It is also suggested that this might be relevant to Aristotle’s tendency to establish a separation of phronēsis, i.e., practical wisdom, from sophia, i.e., wisdom, in the Nicomachean Ethics.
References
Alexander Aphrodisiensis, 1891, In Aristotelis Metaphysica Commentaria, M. Hayduck (ed.), Berolini (CAG I).
Alexander of Aphrodisias, 1989, On Aristotle’s Metaphysics 1, transl. W. E. Dooley, Ithaca.
Alexander of Aphrodisias, 1992, On Aristotle’s Metaphysics 2 and 3, transl. W. E. Dooley, A. Madigan, Bloomsbury.
Αlexander of Aphrodisias, 1993, On Aristotle’s Metaphysics 4, transl. A. Madigan, Ithaca.
Αlexander of Aphrodisias, 1993, On Aristotle’s Metaphysics 5, transl. W. E. Dooley, Ithaca.
Aristotle, 1908, Metaphysics, transl. W. D. Ross, in: Works of Aristotle translated into English, vol. 8, Oxford.
Aristotle, 1926, The Nicomachean Ethics, transl. H. Rackham, New York.
Aristotle, 1935, Athenian Constitution. Eudemian Ethics. Virtues and Vices, transl. H. Rackham, Cambridge.
Aristotle, 1925, Ethica Nicomachea, transl. W. D. Ross, Oxford.
Eustratius, 1892, In Ethica Nicomachea Commentaria, G. Heylbut (ed.), Berolini (CAG XX).
Plato, 18923, The Dialogues of Plato, transl. B. Jowett, Vol. 1–5, Oxford.
Proclus Diadochus, 1899, In Platonis Rem Publicam Comentarii, G. Kroll (ed.), Vol. I, Lipsiae.
Aristotle, 1915, Ethica Eudemia, transl. J. Solomon, in: The Works of Aristotle: Magna Moralia, Ethica Eudemia, De virtutibus et vitiis, W. D. Ross (ed.), Oxford.
Simplicius, 1882, In Aristotelis Physicorum libros quattuor priores Commentaria, H. Diels (ed.), Berolini (CAG IX).
Allan, D. J., 1963–1964, “Aristotle’s Criticism of Platonic Doctrine concerning Goodness and the Good”, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 64, pp. 273–286.
Barney, R., 2007, “The Carpenter and the Good”, in: D. L. Cairns, F.-G. Herrmann, T. Penner (eds.), Pursuing the Good: Ethics and Metaphysics in Plato’s Republic, Edinburgh, pp. 293–319.
Βroadie, S., 2007, Aristotle and Beyond, Essays on Metaphysics and Ethics, Cambridge.
Bury, R. G., 1904, “Aristotle Ethics I 6”, The Classical Review 18, p. 17.
Cherniss, H., 1944, Aristotle’s Criticism of Plato and the Academy, Baltimore.
Cherniss, H., 1962, The Riddle of the Academy, New York.
Crubellier, M., 2000, “Metaphysics Λ 4”, in: M. Frede, D. Charles, Aristotle’s Metaphysics Lambda. Symposium Aristotelicum, Oxford, pp. 137–160.
De Lacy, P. H., 1939, “The Problem of Causation in Plato’s Philosophy”, Classical Philology 34, pp. 97–115.
Düring, I., 1961, Aristotle’s Protrepticus: An Attempt at Reconstruction, Göteborg.
Flashar, H., 1988, “Die Kritik der platonischen Ideenlehre in der Ethik des Aristoteles”, in: C. Mueller-Goldingen (hrsg.), Schriften zur aristotelischen Ethik, Hildesheim, pp. 201–224 (Synusia. Festgabe für W. Schadewaldt, Pfullingen 1965, pp. 223–246).
Fortenbaugh, W. W., 1966, “Nicomachean Ethics, I, 1096b 26–29”, Phronesis 11, pp. 185–194.
Gadamer, H.-G., 1986, The Idea of the Good in Platonic-Aristotelian Philosophy, transl. R. C. Smith, New Haven–London.
Hardie, W. F. R., 1968 (1980, 1999), Aristotle’s Ethical Theory, Oxford.
Joachim, H. H., 1951, Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics. A Commentary, Oxford.
Johnson, M. R., 2005, Aristotle on Teleology, Oxford.
Kahn, C. H., 1997, Plato and the Socratic Dialogue, The Philosophical Use of a Literary Form, Cambridge.
Kirwan, C., 1993 (1971), Aristotle, Metaphysics. Books Γ, Δ, and Ε, Oxford.
Laks, A., 2000, “Metaphysics Λ7”, in: M. Frede, D. Charles, Aristotle’s Metaphysics Lambda. Symposium Aristotelicum, Oxford, pp. 207–243.
Mouzala, M. G., 2003, To problēma tēs kinēseōs kai tēs metabolēs eis tēn Physikēn akroasin tou Aristotelous (The problem of motion and change in Aristotle’s Physics), Dissertation. National and Capodistrian University of Athens, School of Philosophy, Dep. of Philosophy, Education and Psychology, Section of Philosophy.
Mouzala, M. G., 2008, Ousia kai Orismos: Hē Problēmatikē tēs henotētos eis ta oikeia kephalaia tōn “Meta ta physika” tou Aristotelous (Substance and Definition: The Problematic of Unity in the relevant chapters of Aristotle’s Metaphysics), Athens.
Mouzala, M. G., 2013, Zētēmata Gnōsiologias, Ontologias kai Metafusikēs (Issues of Epistemology, Ontology and
Metaphysics in Aristotle’s Philosophy, In the light of Ancient and Byzantine Commentaries), Αthens.
Mueller, I., 1986, “On some academic theories of mathematical objects”, Journal of Hellenic Studies 106, pp. 111–120.
Owen, G. E. L., 1960, “Logic and Metaphysics in Some Earlier Works of Aristotle”, in: I. Düring, G. E. L. Owen (eds.), Aristotle and Plato in the mid-fourth century, Göteborg, pp. 163–190.
Ross, W. D., 1924, Aristotle’s Metaphysics, Vol. I–II, Oxford.
Santas, G., 1989, “Aristotle’s Criticism of Plato’s Form of the Good: Ethics without Metaphysics?”, Philosophical Papers 18, pp. 137–160.
Segvic, H., 2004, “Aristotle on the Varieties of Goodness”, Apeiron 37, pp. 151–176.
Shields, C., 2008, “Surpassing in Dignity and Power: The Metaphysics of Goodness in Plato’s Republic”, Philosophical Inquiry 30, pp. 145–161.
Shields, C., 2015, “The Summum Bonum in Aristotle’s Ethics”, in: J. Aufderheide, R. M. Bader (eds.), The Highest Good in Aristotle and Kant, Oxford.
Tarán, H., 1981, Speusippus of Athens. A Critical Study with a Collection of the Related Texts and Commentary, Leiden.
Watson, J. M., 1909, Aristotle’s Criticisms of Plato, London–New York–Toronto–Melbourne.
Wilson, J. C., 1904, “On the Platonist Doctrine of the σύμβλητοι ριθμοί”, The Classical Review 18, pp. 247–260.
Wilson, M., 2000, Aristotle’s Theory of the Unity of Science, Toronto.
License
Peitho provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.