Aristotle's Virtues focuses on Aristotle's philosophical method and his conceptions of form and substance as a way to explicate the main elements of his ethical and political theorizing. This book shows how those highly general features of Aristotle's thought have an important bearing on his conception of the best kind of life for a human being and the kind of political community needed to enable and encourage that kind of life. While explicating fundamental aspects of Aristotle's philosophy of nature, metaphysics, and theory of knowledge, the discussion of them leads to a culminating account of the virtues of both individual and political life.

Aristotle is the father of virtue ethics—a discipline which is receiving renewed scholarly attention. Yet Aristotle's accounts of the individual virtues remain opaque, for most contemporary commentators of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics have focused upon other matters. In contrast, Howard J. Curzer takes Aristotle's detailed description of the individual virtues to be central to his ethical theory. Working through the Nicomachean Ethics virtue-by-virtue, explaining and generally defending Aristotle's claims, this book brings each of Aristotle's virtues alive. A new Aristotle emerges, an Aristotle fascinated by the details of the individual virtues. Justice and friendship hold special places in Aristotle's virtue theory. Many contemporary discussions place justice and friendship at opposite, perhaps even conflicting, poles of a spectrum. Justice seems to be very much a public, impartial, and dispassionate thing, while friendship is paradigmatically private, partial, and passionate. Yet Curzer argues that in Aristotle's view they are actually symbiotic. Justice is defined in terms of friendship, and good friendship is defined in terms of justice. Curzer goes on to reveal how virtue ethics is not only about being good; it is also about becoming good. Aristotle and the Virtues reconstructs Aristotle's account of moral development. Certain character types serve as stages of moral development. Certain catalysts and mechanisms lead from one stage to the next. Explaining why some people cannot make moral progress specifies the preconditions of moral development. Finally, Curzer describes Aristotle's quest to determine the ultimate goal of moral development, happiness.

Howard J. Curzer presents a fresh new reading of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, which brings each of the virtues alive. He argues that justice and friendship are symbiotic in Aristotle's view; reveals how virtue ethics is not only about being good, but about becoming good; and describes Aristotle's ultimate quest to determine happiness.

Originally published in 1986. Both moral philosophers and philosophical psychologists need to answer the question ‘what is a virtue?’ and the best answer so far give is that of Aristotle. This book is a rigorous exposition of that answer. The elements of Aristotle’s doctrine of virtue are scattered throughout his writings; this book reconstructs his complex and comprehensive doctrine in one place. It also covers Aristotle’s views about choice, character, emotions and the role of pleasure and pain in virtue. The celebrated function (ergon) is considered carefully as well as the doctrine of virtue being related to Aristotle’s metaphysics and categories.

There is a resurgence of interest in Aristotle's ethical theory, and this book contributes to the debate by asserting that, in Aristotle's view, excellence of character is constituted both by the sentiments and by practical reason. Throughout the arguments of the book, Nancy Sherman is sensitive to contemporary moral debates, and indicates the extent to which Aristotle's account of practical reason provides an alternative to theories of impartial reason.

This text looks at Aristotle's claims, particularly the much-maligned doctrine of the mean.

Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics is one of the most important ethical treatises ever written, and has had a profound influence on the subsequent development of ethics and moral psychology. This collection of essays, written by both senior and younger scholars in the field, presents a thorough and close examination of the work. The essays address a broad range of issues including the compositional integrity of the Ethics, the nature of desire, the value of emotions, happiness and the virtues. The result is a volume which will challenge and advance the scholarship on the Ethics, establishing new ways of viewing and appreciating the work for all scholars of Aristotle.

From Natural Character to Moral Virtue in Aristotle discusses Aristotle's biological views about character and the importance of what he calls 'natural character traits' for the development of moral virtue as presented in his ethical treatises. The aim is to provide a new, comprehensive account of the physiological underpinnings of moral development and thereby to show, first, that Aristotle's ethical theories do not exhaust his views about character as has traditionally been assumed, and, second, that his treatment of natural character in the biological treatises provides the conceptual and ideological foundation for his views about habituation as developed in his ethics. Author Mariska Leunissen takes seriously Aristotle's--often ignored--claim that nature is one of the factors through which men become 'good and capable of fine deeds'. Part I ('The Physiology of Natural Character') analyzes, in three chapters, Aristotle's notion of natural character as it is developed in the biological treatises and its role in moral development, especially as it affects women and certain 'barbarians'-groups who are typically left out of accounts of Aristotle's ethics. Leunissen also discuss its relevance for our understanding of physiognomical ideas in Aristotle. Part II ('The Physiology of Moral Development) explores the psychophysical changes in body and soul one is required to undergo in the process of acquiring moral virtues. It includes a discussion of Aristotle's eugenic views, of his identification of habituation as a form of human perfection, and of his claims about the moral deficiencies of women that link them to his beliefs about their biological imperfections.