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Rationality and Happiness
From the Ancients to the Early Medievals
Edited by Jiyuan Yu
Edited by Jorge Gracia


What connection is there between human rationality and happiness? This issue was uppermost in the minds of the Ancient Greek philosophers and continued to be of importance during the entire early medieval period. Starting with the Socrates of Plato's early dialogues, who is regarded as having initiated the eudaimonistic ethical tradition, the present volume looks at Plato, Aristotle, the Skeptics, Seneca (Stoicism), Epicurus, Plotinus (neo-Platonism), Augustine, Boethius, Anselm, and ends with Abelard, the final major figure in early medieval philosophy. Special efforts are made to reveal and trace the continuity and development of the views on rationality and happiness among these major thinkers within this period. The book's approach is historical, but the topics it treats are relevant to many discussions pursued in contemporary philosophical circles. Specifically, the book aims to make two major contributions to the ongoing development of virtue ethics. First, contemporary virtue ethics often draws distinctions between ancient Greek ethics and modern moral philosophy (mainly utilitarianism and Kantianism), and seeks to model ethics on ancient ethics. In doing so, however, contemporary virtue ethics often ignores the transition from Greek ethics to the early Latin medieval tradition. Second, contemporary virtue-based ethics, in its efforts to seek insights from ancient ethics, centers on virtue. In contrast, in ancient and medieval ethics, virtue is pursued for the sake of happiness (eudaimonia), and virtue is conceived as excellence of rationality. Hence, the relationship between rationality and happiness provides the framework for ethical inquiry within which the discussion of virtue takes place. Contributors: JULIA ANNAS, RICHARD BETT, JORGE J.E. GRACIA, BRAD INWOOD, WILLIAM MANN, JOHN MARENBON, GARETH B. MATTHEWS, MARK L. McPHERRAN, DONALD MORRISON, C.C.W. TAYLOR, JONATHAN SANFORD, JIYUAN YU. Jiyuan Yu is Assistant Professor of Ancient Philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo; Jorge

 

DETAILS

2 line illustrations
264 pages
Size: 6 x 9 in
13 digit ISBN: 9781580461306
Binding: Hardback
First published: 21/Feb/2003
Last reprinted: 21/Feb/2003
Price: 75.00 USD / 40.00 GBP Imprint: University of Rochester Press
Series: Rochester Studies in Philosophy
Subject: Philosophy

BIC class: AVH

STATUS: Available
Details updated on 05/01/2009
 
Contents
1   Happiness, Rationality, and Egoism in Plato's Socrates
Donald Morrison
2   Plato on Rationality and Happiness
C. C. W. Taylor
3   Will Aristotle Count Socrates Happy? Socrates and the Nicomachean Ethics
Jiyuan Yu
4   Epicurus on Pleasure and Happiness
Julia Annas
5   Reason, Rationalization, and Happiness in Seneca
Brad Inwood
6   Rationality and Happiness in the Greek Skeptical Traditions
Richard Bett
7   Reason's Ascent: Happiness and the Disunity of Virtue in Plato and Plotinus
Mark L. McPherran
8   Two Concepts of Happiness in Augustine
Gareth B. Matthews
9   Rationality and Happiness: Interpreting Boethius's Consulation of Philosophy
John Marenbon
10   Ratio quaerens beatitudinem: Anselm on Rationality and Happiness
Jorge J. E. Gracia
11   Happiness, Reason, and Sin in Abelard's Ethics
William Mann
 

 

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