Virtue and Practical Wisdom in Aristotle's Eudemian Ethics

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Traditionally scholars have considered the Nicomachean Ethics (NE) as the unique vehicle for Aristotle’s ethical views. Over the last decades, however, his lesser-known Eudemian Ethics (EE) has increasingly become widely read and treated as equally authoritative. The relationship between these two treatises is complicated by the fact that they share three books in common: books V, VI, and VII of the NE have been handed down to us also as books IV, V, and VI of the EE; scholars disagree about their origin and where they should be read. In Virtue and Practical Wisdom (VandPW) I set out to give a comprehensive account of Aristotle's account of character virtue in the EE together with two of the so-called common books. Character virtue is accounted for in general terms in EE II. This general account is then applied to the individual virtues of character (courage, temperance, mildness, etc.) in EE III and then to justice in EE IV (=NE V). Finally, in EE V (=NE VI) Aristotle argues that character virtue requires what he calls practical wisdom. Thus a comprehensive account of character virtue in the EE requires us to connect EE II and III to two of the so-called common books, viz. EE IV (=NE V) and EE V (=NE VI). VandPW aims at examining this whole line of investigation. This endeavour will bring out several specificities of the EE vis-à-vis the NE as well as of the common books.