Philosophy 161

Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics is regarded by many as the greatest work in moral philosophy ever written. Readers unacquainted with virtue ethics or ancient philosophy have to accustom themselves to a different mode of thought in Aristotle which challenges much in modern analytical philosophy, but when we read him on how we should live, on the role of the emotions in our moral life, on the individual virtues and vices, on friendship, on moral education, and on the primacy of the practical over the theoretical in ethics, we find his work, despite its antiquity, as relevant to contemporary thought as one could wish. These topics and others will be covered in the lectures. Students are advised to read the whole work before the beginning of semester to prepare for the class.

Course readings: Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle, Sarah Broadie and Christopher Rowe, Oxford University Press, lsted. Paperback. Aristotle’s Ethics, David Bostock, Oxford University Press, lst ed. paperback.