3. Virtue as a Mean and the Unity of Virtues

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this module, we explore Aristotle's idea that moral virtue represents a balance between two extremes (e.g. the virtue of courage, which is the balance between cowardice and recklessness). But is this a plausible view? In the second half of the module, we turn to Aristotle's view of the unity of the virtues.

Course

In this course, Professor Anthony Price (Birkbeck College, London) explores Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. In the first module, we explore the central concept of eudaimonia, or happiness, in Aristotle's ethics, before turning in the second module to the concept of egocentricity: does Aristotle's view that we should 'act well' demand that we act well for others, or simply for ourselves? In the third module, we explore one of the most well-known concepts in Aristotle's ethics—the idea of virtue as mean—as well as the concept of the unity of virtues. In the fourth module, we turn to several related terms within the general concepts of thought and action, before exploring the concept of contemplation in the fifth module. A shorter final module offers a conclusion to the course as a whole, as well as providing some reading suggestions.

Lecturer

Anthony Price is a professor of philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London. His research relates to Greek ethics and moral psychology, and contemporary ethics. Price was educated at Winchester School and the University of Oxford. He taught at the University of York from 1972-1995.