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Single Idea 20199

[filed under theme 22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 2. Happiness / b. Eudaimonia ]

Full Idea

Modern moral philosophers have been considerably more skeptical than were the ancient Greeks about the close association between the flourishing of the individual and that of the community.

Gist of Idea

Nowadays we doubt the Greek view that the flourishing of individuals and communities are linked

Source

Linda Trinkaus Zagzebski (Virtues of the Mind [1996], II 2.2)

Book Ref

Zagzebski,Linda: 'Virtues of the Mind' [CUP 1996], p.99

A Reaction

I presume this is not just a change in fashion, but a reflection of how different the two societies are. In a close community with almost no privacy, flourishing individuals are good citizens. In the isolations of modern liberalism they may be irrelevant.

The 15 ideas with the same theme [Greek concept of fulfilment/happiness/flourishing]:

1646 Socrates was the first to put 'eudaimonia' at the centre of ethics [Socrates, by Vlastos]
14178 Happiness is secure enjoyment of what is good and beautiful [Plato]
18673 Eudaimonia is said to only have final value, where reason and virtue are also useful [Aristotle, by Orsi]
5127 Does Aristotle say eudaimonia is the aim, or that it ought to be? [McDowell on Aristotle]
5143 Some good and evil can happen to the dead, just as the living may be unaware of a disaster [Aristotle]
5996 Critolaus redefined Aristotle's moral aim as fulfilment instead of happiness [Critolaus, by White,SA]
13302 Life is like a play - it is the quality that matters, not the length [Seneca]
5068 'Eudaimonia' means 'having a good demon', implying supreme good fortune [Taylor,R]
5120 What counts as 'flourishing' must be relative to various sets of values [Harman]
8005 'Happiness' is a bad translation of 'eudaimonia', which includes both behaving and faring well [MacIntyre]
21836 Philosophers after Aristotle endorsed the medical analogy for eudaimonia [Nussbaum, by Flanagan]
21835 We need Eudaimonics - the empirical study of how we should flourish [Flanagan]
20199 Nowadays we doubt the Greek view that the flourishing of individuals and communities are linked [Zagzebski]
4324 Animals and plants can 'flourish', but only rational beings can have eudaimonia [Hursthouse]
7099 With a broad concept of flourishing, it might be possible without the virtues [Statman]