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Seneca on the Self: Why Now?

A. A. Long

in From Epicurus to Epictetus: Studies in Hellenistic and Roman Philosophy

In urging himself and Lucilius to cultivate a ‘good mentality’ (bona mens), Seneca's principal point is that objective human excellence and authentic happiness depend intrinsically and essentially on ... More

In urging himself and Lucilius to cultivate a ‘good mentality’ (bona mens), Seneca's principal point is that objective human excellence and authentic happiness depend intrinsically and essentially on the state of one's mind, and only instrumentally and contingently on the health and condition of one's body. This division between mind and body involves the folk psychology recognized in everyday consciousness; and it is compatible with the strict physicalism endorsed both by Stoicism and by most modern theorists. Seneca, moreover, taps completely into the contemporary world when one moves from the academy into popular culture.Less

Mill and Political Philosophy

Robert Devigne

in Reforming Liberalism: J.S. Mill's Use of Ancient, Religious, Liberal, and Romantic Moralities

This chapter concludes the book with a comprehensive view of the ideas and arguments that John Stuart Mill encountered, written of, and commented upon regarding his own political philosophy. Mill ... More

This chapter concludes the book with a comprehensive view of the ideas and arguments that John Stuart Mill encountered, written of, and commented upon regarding his own political philosophy. Mill believed that societies need to create institutions and practices that contribute to the development of human faculties, the moral education of society, and human excellence—whereas the more traditional liberals of Anglo-Scottish thought focused instead of protecting a private sphere for human conduct. Also, the chapter discusses a riddle in Mill's political philosophy that has long vexed analysts. Mill, for one, is an advocate of freedoms of speech, religion, women, assembly, self-government, the market, and emigration. On the other hand, Mill is also known for arguments that transcend liberal concerns about protecting the individual from state and social domination. In response to these two currents in Mill's thought, contemporary commentators have developed two schools of thought: traditionalist and revisionist. Thus, the chapter uses these two approaches in order to further explore Mill's political philosophy.Less

Excellence of Character

in Aristotle's Dialogue with Socrates: On the "Nicomachean Ethics"

Having defined eudaimonia as “an activity of soul in accordance with complete or perfect virtue” and identified it as the first principle (archē) for the sake of which everything else is done, Book I ... More

Having defined eudaimonia as “an activity of soul in accordance with complete or perfect virtue” and identified it as the first principle (archē) for the sake of which everything else is done, Book I of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics seemed to promise a movement of thought that would descend from that principle to deduce what complete or perfect virtue is. Book II, however, in turning to the investigation of virtue, makes no explicit attempt to move from happiness as the first principle. The investigation of human excellence that is supposed to lead back to the question of happiness begins and ends with Socrates. In Socratic eyes, what habituation would produce looks as if it could only be “demotic virtue,” control over behavior based on the calculation of how to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. The formal definition of ethical virtue in Book II replaced the mean in relation to feelings and actions, which the phronimos chooses, with the mean state between two extremes that constitutes a disposition of character.Less

Honorable Greatness Denied (2): The Premises

Robert Faulkner

in The Case for Greatness: Honorable Ambition and Its Critics

This chapter aims to outline the underlying dynamic of modern political theories at work in the stories, complicated doubts, and paradoxical denials of John Rawls and Hannah Arendt. The chapter then ... More

This chapter aims to outline the underlying dynamic of modern political theories at work in the stories, complicated doubts, and paradoxical denials of John Rawls and Hannah Arendt. The chapter then sketches a representative early modern critique of virtue and especially superior virtue (Hobbes's), the leading attempt to recover morality by a teaching of equal dignity (Kant's), and finally how Nietzschean thought brought about the relativism and postmodern efflorescence—all of which would create the sense of skepticism about human excellence. Thomas Hobbes began this attack by targeting ancient, biblical virtue, as well as the ancients' praise of magnanimity. What Aristotle defined as magnanimity, Hobbes would refer to as foolish and dangerous “vanity.” Thus this chapter outlines the possible origins of this modern skepticism by looking at its critics and their attacking theories on the idea and concept of greatness in an individual.Less