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Ideas for 'works (fragments)', 'Interview with Baggini and Stangroom' and 'Eudemian Ethics'

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4 ideas

22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 1. Nature of Ethics / g. Moral responsibility
22512 Acts are voluntary if done knowingly, by the agent, and in his power to avoid it [Aristotle]
     Full Idea: Whatever a man does - not in ignorance, and through his own agency - when it is in his power not to do it, must be voluntary, and that is what voluntary is.
     From: Aristotle (Eudemian Ethics [c.333 BCE], 1225b08)
     A reaction: This is the conclusion of the Eudemian discussion of responsibility. This is a definition by necessary and sufficient conditions. How can you be sure that something is in your power not to do?
22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 2. Source of Ethics / e. Human nature
22509 What is natural for us is either there at birth, or appears by normal processes [Aristotle]
     Full Idea: By these marks we distinguish what comes naturally: everything that is there straightaway as soon as something comes to be, and all that occurs to us if growth is allowed to proceed normally - such as greying hair, ageing, and the like.
     From: Aristotle (Eudemian Ethics [c.333 BCE], 1224b32)
     A reaction: The word 'normal' has to do a lot of work here. Presumably jaundice in a neonate is not included. Or later hereditary diseases.
22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 2. Source of Ethics / k. Ethics from nature
20841 Zeno said live in agreement with nature, which accords with virtue [Zeno of Citium, by Diog. Laertius]
     Full Idea: Zeno first (in his book On Human Nature) said that the goal was to live in agreement with nature, which is to live according to virtue.
     From: report of Zeno (Citium) (fragments/reports [c.294 BCE]) by Diogenes Laertius - Lives of Eminent Philosophers 07.87
     A reaction: The main idea seems to be Aristotelian - that the study of human nature reveals what our virtues are, and following them is what nature requires. Nature is taken to be profoundly rational.
1774 Since we are essentially rational animals, living according to reason is living according to nature [Zeno of Citium, by Diog. Laertius]
     Full Idea: As reason is given to rational animals according to a more perfect principle, it follows that to live correctly according to reason, is properly predicated of those who live according to nature.
     From: report of Zeno (Citium) (fragments/reports [c.294 BCE]) by Diogenes Laertius - Lives of Eminent Philosophers 07.Ze.52
     A reaction: This is the key idea for understanding what the stoics meant by 'live according to nature'. The modern idea of rationality doesn't extend to 'perfect principles', however.