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PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHYTHE JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY FOR PHILOSOPHY IN PRACTICEwww.practical-philosophy.org.uk www.society-for-philosophy-in-practice.org |
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PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHYTHE JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY FOR PHILOSOPHY IN PRACTICEwww.practical-philosophy.org.uk www.society-for-philosophy-in-practice.org |
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Aristotle on Ethics
Gerard Hughes
2001 London:
Routledge,
pp. x + 238. ISBN 0-415-22187-0 (pb) £12.95
Practical Philosophy (Book Reviews) Autumn 2002 Volume 4.2
Reviewed by: Antonia Macaro
Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics is a book that presents many difficulties – it is not an easy read, and it is by no means always clear. It is however worth the toil and trouble, since it is remarkably modern in some ways and can provide a lot of food for thought in relation to how we should live our lives. But, realistically, we may need some help in getting going with it. Gerard Hughes has written a book that I would recommend to anybody who was seriously interested in finding out about Aristotle’s Ethics. It provides a sound and critical introduction, which goes into enough detail to give a sense of the complexities of Aristotle’s ideas and interpretation while avoiding getting bogged down in minutiae to the detriment of the overall picture.
It restricts itself to the Nicomachean Ethics, and it is an unusual commentary, in that unlike other commentaries it does not strictly follow its order – which is a good thing, given that as we all know the ordering of the material in the Nicomachean Ethics is neither due to Aristotle, in all probability, nor always the most coherent. The order in this book is more thematic, i.e. certain issues are selected and traced back to the relevant books and chapters. Another unusual feature of it is that it raises critical questions that other commentaries avoid.
It begins with a brief introduction on Aristotle and a chapter on the style, structure and aim of the Nicomachean Ethics. There follows a chapter on the fulfilled life, in which, among other things, Hughes usefully explains the difference between dominant and inclusive interpretations of the concept of eudaimonia and critically explains the ‘function argument’, pointing out how that there seem to be two different conclusions to it, to be found in book I and book X. Hughes puts forward his own possible resolution of this contradiction, which aims to strike a balance between dominant and inclusivist interpretations. The following chapters cover the moral virtues, practical wisdom, responsibility, moral failure, relationship with others, pleasure and the good life, and Aristotle’s moral world.
The most useful feature of this book is that at the beginning of each chapter it identifies the books and chapters of the NE that are relevant to the topic under consideration, and it has bullet points on key problems of interpretation and critical questions. The former include: Does Aristotle have one consistent account of eudaimonia? Is practical wisdom concerned only with means, not with ends? How is practical wisdom related to moral virtue? Is Aristotle an ethical egoist? The latter include: Does Aristotle offer a convincing basis for ethics? Is Aristotle’s view of moral training tantamount to indoctrination? Are we responsible for our upbringing and character? is the fulfilled life necessarily pleasurable? And so on.
Throughout, the discussion is most enlightening and stimulating. Perhaps not the first step in an investigation of Aristotle’s Ethics, but could very usefully be the second.
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