Non Relative Virtues An Aristotelian Account - 1383 Words

Non-Relative Virtues: The Eliminative Task SANJEEV VERMA In â€Å"Non-Relative Virtues: An Aristotelian Account,† Martha C. Nussbaum (1988) responds to a growing trend among contemporary ethical theorists (e.g., MacIntyre, Williams, Foot, etc.) to connect the return to the virtues with a turn toward relativism. Nussbaum thinks this connection is mistaken. According to Nussbaum, Aristotle believed that there was a single, objective account of the human good, or human flourishing, based on virtuous action (i.e. of appropriate functioning in each human sphere). In this paper I will present Nussbaum’s argument that Aristotelianism can provide an objective account of human morality based on virtuous action. After presenting Nussbaum’s account, I will present an objection to Nussbaum and a possible reply on her behalf. At the outset it should be noted that Nussbaum’s account relies heavily on her exegesis of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics (NE) II.7. In this chapter, Aristotle explicitly references a chart—which we are supposed to imagine hanging in his classroom—that lists the particular virtues of character of which he writes. Nussbaum attempts to reproduce Aristotle’s original chart in her essay. Nussbaum’s chart should not be problematic as long as we accept the central claims of her interpretation of NE II.7. According to Nussbaum, Aristotle isolates the common spheres of human experience (i.e. those in which humans regularly, or necessarily, have dealings). Since theShow MoreRelatedEssay on Do Medical Practitioners Need the Virtues?2276 Words   |  10 PagesA revival of Aristotelian thinking with regard to morality, in particular the idea of virtue ethics, has been in the ascendance for the past twenty years, and now forms the basis of a theory of mo rality which challenges the dominant utilitarian and deontological schools of thought. 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