Traditional approaches to computer ethics regard computers as tools, andfocus, therefore, on the ethics of their use. Alternatively, computer ethicsmight instead be understood as a study of the ethics of computationalagents, exploring, for example, the different characteristics and behaviorsthat might benefit such an agent in accomplishing its goals. In this paper,I identify a list of characteristics of computational agents that facilitatetheir pursuit of their end, and claim that these characteristics can beunderstood as virtues within a framework of virtue ethics. This (...) frameworkincludes four broad categories – agentive, social, environmental, and moral– each of which can be understood as a spectrum of virtues rangingbetween two extreme subcategories. Although the use of a virtue frameworkis metaphorical rather than literal, I argue that by providing a frameworkfor identifying and critiquing assumptions about what a `good' computer is,a study of android arete provides focus and direction to the developmentof future computational agents. (shrink)

Este artigo se resume em seis observações acerca do conceito de aretê, que, no transcurso da cultura grega, contém não apenas um, mas vários significados. Na medida em que percorre tais significados, o artigo também se ocupa em averiguar como se deu um estreitamento na significação da aretê de um ponto de vista cívico, voltado para à qualificação do ser cidadão, e também filosófico, referido à vida moral enquanto qualificação do ser homem. Tendo, pois, em vista estes dois aspectos – (...) o ser cidadão e o ser homem – o artigo põe igualmente em destaque o teor da confabulação entre sofistas (Protágoras e Górgias) e filósofos (Sócrates e Platão) a respeito do agir mais apropriado enquanto aretê. (shrink)

This essay on “The Status of Health in Plato’s Theory of Goods” discusses how health figures as a “good” in the framework of Plato’s general theory of human goods. It starts with meta-ethical distinctions regarding how things can be classified as “good,” including the conceptual distinctions between intrinsic, final, and constitutive goods. I then discuss passages in Plato that shed light on the function of health as an “instrumental good” that contributes to an undisturbed mode of existence free to pursue (...) truly valuable goals. Against Stoicising interpretations, I show that Plato maintains that health, as an instrumental good, makes a difference with respect to the quality of a virtuous person’s life. I then turn to the famous classification of goods introduced at the beginning of Republic II. The main concern there is the controversial status of justice as a good, but the division also mentions health as a good worthy to be pursued in its own right and not just on account of its causal consequences. Since this classification and how it is used create serious problems for the interpretation, I first try to work out a solution, focusing on the status of justice as an intrinsic, final and constitutive good. In my concluding segment, I then explain on what basis Plato can classify health as not only an instrumental, but also a (weak) constitutive good. This requires a discussion of how Plato views the relation of the body to the human ‘self.’ My answer credits him with a more differentiated understanding of this relation than is usually assumed. (shrink)

This study approaches arete as excellence( W. Jaeger). lt understands Husserlian thought as a monadology in which a dynamic dwells: that of the telos that leads to the fulfillment ofends submitted to " the absolute ought". The development of this investigation is carried out within the framework of the moral person's genesis and its intersubjective connections. The question of life's meaning and its relation to ethics are manifested in their teleological orientation. Existential considerations, the analyses of "position takings" and the (...) meaning of the ethical reductionare the starting-points of this investigation on Husserl's theory of theperson. The divine entelechy ends up being the moral person's telos. (shrink)

The controversy conceming the unity of Plato's Parmenides and the meaning of its first part is stillongoing. The A. proposes a solution, pointing out its structural coincidence with the Republic's simile of the line. This leads him to confine young Socrates in the segment that corresponds to óuivoux and old Parmenides in the vór¡olc; segment. As the one who "possesses insight" of truth based on his apprehension of the One-Good. Parmenides is the actual representative of the philosopher's arete.

The article grapples with the question whether Plato believed that, in the matter of arete, the female psyche had a built-in inclination to immorality in a way that the male psyche did not, and was therefore assuch signiticantly different from the male psyche. It is argued that the evidence of the Timaeus ( and, to some lesser degree, of the Laws) suggests very strongly that he did, though fortunately the political consequence she drew from this (in the Laws) tum out (...) to be positive rather than negative. Aristotle, by contrast,it is argued, while still holding to the lamentable theory of the inferiority of woman, talks of ditl'eringquanta of (one and the same) arete in male and female souls, rather than a difference in their very arete. (shrink)

The aim of this study is to analyze succinctly the ages of nations in the philosophical standpoint of Giambattista Vico, with special reference to the heroic age. It will be interesting to apply these categories onto the athletic Greek experience with the objective of reclaiming the necessary knowledge of the agonal virtue. Such argument is still valuable nowadays because of the dangerous mistakes of strictly idealistic positions.

Partiendo de una indagación histórico-hermenéutica de la democracia ateniense,se propone analizar las relaciones socio-históricas de la democracia y el teatrosobre el plano cívico de la Grecia clásica, mediante un análisis que permitaconocer en qué medida tal relación consolidó una nueva areté parala polis de la Grecia clásica. En este sentido, la presente investigación posibilitarácomprender la importancia que desempeñó el teatro por medio de uno de los escritoresde su época como lo fue el trágico Eurípides, esto con el fin de (...) comprenderel rol que demarcó la relación democracia-teatro, respecto a la educacióncívica de la polis entre los siglos V a. C. y IV a. C. (shrink)

In this paper the A. discusses Proclus' determinations of Plato's conception of arete, successively dealing with virtue 's nature, its teaching and its axiology. Both for Plato as for Proclus. "virtue" is an innate quality that should be manifest through our acts, in order of which its teaching would be a process of assisted self-revelation. In view of the thesis of logical-practical parallelism (akin to the Aristotelian logical-grammatical parallelism). Proclus concludes that the reexists an inner harmony of the soul determined (...) by the inner harmony of each of its three parts. Thus justiceis seen as the virtue of the whole soul. and virtue rises then as the criterion of good, beauty, and of any value in general. (shrink)

O objetivo deste artigo é um estudo da virtude em Aristóteles. O termo areté é frequentemente traduzido como “virtude”, mas sua real significação remete-nos à ideia de “excelência”. Cada atividade humana, prática, possui uma areté particular. No domínio político, além da deliberação, Aristóteles expõe a noção de phronesis. Esta última é a excelência do líder político.

This article interprets demokratia and arete as dynamically related terms of political thought in ancient Greek culture, from Homeric times to the end of the classical era. It does so selectively, identifying three stages in which this relationship is developed: from the Homeric to archaic eras; fifth-century Athenian democracy, in which demokratia and arete are posed as complementary terms; and the fourth century era in which philosophers used virtue to critique democracy. Relying mostly on evidence from writers who have become (...) benchmarks in the history of Western political thought, the argument emphasizes the inherently political dimension of arete during this period of ancient Greek culture. Noting different ways in which arete is related to political power in general and democracy in particular, it also illustrates the manner in which arete is neither philosophically pristine nor merely an instrument. (shrink)

This article interprets demokratia and arete as dynamically related terms of political thought in ancient Greek culture, from Homeric times to the end of the classical era. It does so selectively, identifying three stages in which this relationship is developed: from the Homeric to archaic eras; fifth-century Athenian democracy, in which demokratia and arete are posed as complementary terms; and the fourth century era in which philosophers used virtue to critique democracy. Relying mostly on evidence from writers who have become (...) benchmarks in the history of Western political thought, the argument emphasizes the inherently political dimension of arete during this period of ancient Greek culture. Noting different ways in which arete is related to political power in general and democracy in particular, it also illustrates the manner in which arete is neither philosophically pristine nor merely an instrument of practical power. The effect of the research contradicts traditional and recent readings of democracy and virtue as inherently antagonistic. The aim of the article is to identify ancient Greek contributions to understanding the potential, contingencies and dangers of the relationship between democracy and virtue — one which may benefit both democracy and virtue. (shrink)

El fenómeno de la sofística en la Grecia clásica representa un momento fundamental de la vida intelectual de los griegos, especialmente porque es un efecto del surgimiento y desarrollo de la democracia en Atenas. El presente artículo pretende mostrar de manera amplia el movimiento sofístico de la Atenas del siglo V, y, especialmente, sus repercusiones para la enseñanza de la virtud política, como parte del proyecto de la paideia sofística. Estos aspectos generales se ejemplificarán con más precisión exponiendo el pensamiento (...) de uno de los sofistas más reconocidos de su tiempo: Protágoras de Abdera. (shrink)