Mediality and Rationality in Aristotle's Account of Excellence of Character

Apeiron 25 (4):155-174 (1992)
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Abstract

I offer a reading of Aristotle’s “doctrine of the mean” that avoids two pitfalls: taking it as truistic, and taking it as involving the bizarre thesis that whenever one acts as reason directs, one’s action is mid-way between some extremes. The crucial point is that while Aristotle denies the existence of useful general ethical truths, he himself offers truths about the *likelihoods* with which rationality will require actions of certain types; and it is with such truths that the statistical idea of the mean gets a foothold in his theory of the virtues.

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reprint McCullagh, Mark (1995) "Mediality and Rationality in Aristotle's Account of Excellence of Character". Apeiron 28(4):155 - 174

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Mark McCullagh
University of Guelph

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References found in this work

Virtue and Reason.John McDowell - 1979 - The Monist 62 (3):331-50.
Ethics with Aristotle.Sarah Broadie - 1991 - New York: Oxford University Press.
Virtue and Reason.John McDowell - 1997 - In Roger Crisp & Michael Slote (eds.), Virtue Ethics. Oxford University Press.
Aristotle on the Human Good.Richard Kraut - 1989 - Princeton University Press.
Aristotle on the Human Good.Richard KRAUT - 1989 - Ethics 101 (2):382-391.

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