Philosophical Studies 174 (7):1839-1856 (2017)
Authors |
|
Abstract |
Kraut and other neo-Aristotelians have argued that there is no such thing as absolute goodness. They admit only good in a kind, e.g. a good sculptor, and good for something, e.g. good for fish. What is the view of Aristotle? Mostly limiting myself to the Nicomachean Ethics, I argue that Aristotle is committed to things being absolutely good and also to a metaphysics of absolute goodness where there is a maximally best good that is the cause of the goodness of all other things in virtue of being their end. I begin by suggesting that the notion of good as an end, which is present in the first lines of the NE, is not obviously accounted for by good in a kind or good for something. I then give evidence that good in a kind and good for something can explain neither certain distinctions drawn between virtues nor the determinacy ascribed to what is good “in itself.” I argue contra Gotthelf that because several important arguments in the Nicomachean Ethics rely on comparative judgments of absolute value—e.g. “Man is the best of all animals”—Aristotle is committed to the existence of both absolute goodness and an absolutely best being. I focus on one passage, Aristotle’s division of goods in NE I 12, which presupposes this metaphysical picture.
|
Keywords | Aristotle Absolute Goodness Final Cause axiology |
Categories | (categorize this paper) |
ISBN(s) | |
DOI | 10.1007/s11098-016-0824-y |
Options |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Download options
References found in this work BETA
Finite and Infinite Goods: A Framework for Ethics.Robert Merrihew Adams - 1999 - Oxford University Press.
View all 43 references / Add more references
Citations of this work BETA
A Monistic Conclusion to Aristotle’s Ergon Argument: The Human Good as the Best Achievement of a Human.Samuel H. Baker - 2021 - Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 103 (3):373-403.
Good, Actually: Aristotelian Metaphysics and the ‘Guise of the Good’.Adam M. Willows - 2022 - Philosophy 97 (2):187-205.
Autonomous Reboot: Aristotle, Autonomy and the Ends of Machine Ethics.Jeffrey White - 2022 - AI and Society 37 (2):647-659.
Scholarship on Aristotle's Ethical and Political Philosophy (2011-2020).Thornton Lockwood - manuscript
View all 6 citations / Add more citations
Similar books and articles
Richard Kraut, Against Absolute Goodness , Pp. Xii+ 224.Julie Tannenbaum - 2016 - Utilitas 28 (1):119-122.
Plato V. Aristotle: Is the Form of the Good Relevant to Ethics?David Joseph Yount - 1998 - Dissertation, The University of Wisconsin - Madison
The Good Man and the Upright Citizen in Aristotle's Ethics and Politics.David Keyt - 2007 - Social Philosophy and Policy 24 (2):220-240.
Absolute Goodness: In Defence of the Useless and Immoral.Michael Campbell - 2015 - Journal of Value Inquiry 49 (1-2):95-112.
On Some Ways in Which A Thing Can Be Good.Judith Jarvis Thomson - 1992 - Social Philosophy and Policy 9 (2):96-117.
Being and the Good: Maimonides on Ontological Beauty.Diana Lobel - 2011 - Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy 19 (1):1-45.
Reasons as the Unity Among the Varieties of Goodness.Richard Rowland - 2016 - Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 97 (2):200-227.
Goodness is Reducible to Betterness the Evil of Death is the Value of Life.John Broome - 1993 - In Peter Koslowski Yuichi Shionoya (ed.), The Good and the Economical: Ethical Choices in Economics and Management. Springer Verlag. pp. 70–84.
Analytics
Added to PP index
2016-12-08
Total views
675 ( #11,475 of 2,505,224 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
72 ( #11,064 of 2,505,224 )
2016-12-08
Total views
675 ( #11,475 of 2,505,224 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
72 ( #11,064 of 2,505,224 )
How can I increase my downloads?
Downloads