Transcript Rigor and creativity in the interdisciplinary

Some positions in the trajectory of
the interdisciplinary interpretation of
Aristotle's ethical theory.
Machiel Keestra
Inst. for Interdisciplinary Studies, U Amsterdam,
AIS Conference, Oct. 15, 2011
Ingredients of Aristotle’s
Nicomachean Ethics
Contents according to Ross’ translation:
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book i The Human Good
book ii-iv Moral Virtue
book v Justice
book vi Intellectual Virtue
book vii Continence and Incontinence: Pleasure
book viii-ix Friendship
book x Pleasure, Happiness
• --> concluding with a reference to Politics
Dimensions of ethical theory
according to Aristotle’s
approach
• Natural dimensions to explain
dispositions/capabilities
• Environmental dimensions to explain
development
• Socio-political dimensions to explain
normative contents
...Consequently involving a theoretical pluralism.
The Ethics’ discontinuous
reception history
• Partial translations from
12th to 14th centuries
• First Greek edition, ca.
1500
• Contrast with Christian
accomodation of Plato’s
idea of the ‘absolute
good’
Modern ethical theories’ focus
on validity, not ‘genetic’
dimensions
Kant’s Critique of pure practical reason (1788):
- universalizable rules
- that can be arrived at individually
- via a reasoning process
Recent re-discovery of
dimensions of ethical thought:
1
“it is not profitable for us at present to do
moral philosophy; that should be laid aside
at any rate until we have an adequate
philosophy of psychology, in which we are
conspicuously lacking”
(Anscombe, Modern Moral Philosophy, 1958)
Rediscovered psychological
dimension: morality as skill
‘neuroscientific results suggest
that the moral
psychology of humans and
other social animals such as
chimpanzees,
baboons, ravens, and wolves,
are more consilient with the
assumptions of
virtue theory than with other
theories”
(Casebeer, Churchland, 2003)
Recent rediscovery of
dimensions of ethical thought:
2
“The hermeneutic actuality of Aristotle”
- self-understanding is partly constituted
by its history & development
(Gadamer, Wahrheit und Methode, 1960)
Rediscovered contextual
dimension(s):
‘communitarian’ selves
• “The tradition of virtues is at variance with
central features of the modern economic
order and more especially its individualism”
(MacIntyre, 1981)
“the free individual can only maintain his
identity within a society/culture of a certain
kind”
(Taylor, 1979)
Rediscovered dimensions:
descriptive rather than normative
Cf. a Hegelian critique of mistaking
‘Genesis’ for ‘Geltung’
– descriptive value is not yet normative.
Risk of ‘naturalistic fallacy’ in current neoaristotelian trends
How to continue this trajectory?
Re-construction of Aristotle’s comprehensive
account?
• Descriptive ethics
• Normative ethics
Is there need c.q. room for an additional critical
component in Aristotle’s Ethics?