Phronesis 57 (2):142-163 (2012)
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Abstract In this paper, I ask why Aristotle thinks that ethical virtue (rather than mere self-control) is required for practical wisdom. I argue that a satisfactory answer will need to explain why being prone to bad appetites implies a failing of the rational part of the soul. I go on to claim that the self-controlled person does suffer from such a rational failing: a failure to take a specifically rational kind of pleasure in fine action. However, this still leaves a problem: could there not be someone who (unlike the self-controlled person) took the right kind of pleasure in fine action, but who failed to be virtuous on account of bad appetites? If so, would such a person be practically wise but not virtuous? I end with some suggestions about how Aristotle might answer this
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Keywords | practical wisdom reason ethical virtue self-control |
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DOI | 10.1163/156852812x628998 |
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References found in this work BETA
Disunity in Aristotelian Virtues: A Reply to Richard Kraut.Terence H. Irwin - 1988 - Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy:87-90.
Akrasia and Perceptual Illusion.Jessica Moss - 2009 - Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 91 (2):119-156.
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Citations of this work BETA
Knowing in Aristotle Part 2: Technē, Phronēsis, Sophia, and Divine Cognitive Activities.Caleb Murray Cohoe - 2021 - Philosophy Compass 17 (1):e12799.
Aristotle on the Archai of Practical Thought.Jay R. Elliott - 2018 - Southern Journal of Philosophy 56 (4):448-468.
Scholarship on Aristotle's Ethical and Political Philosophy (2011-2020).Thornton Lockwood - manuscript
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