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Aristotle and the Origins of Evil

Aristotle and the Origins of Evil AbstractWhy do human beings, on Aristotle’s view, have an innate tendency to badness, that is, to developing desires that go beyond and against their natural needs? Given Aristotle’s teleological assumptions (including the thesis that nature does nothing in vain), such tendency should not be present. I argue that the culprit is to be found in the workings of rationality, in particular in the (necessary) presence of theoretical reason. As theoretical reason requires that human beings have unlimited non-rational desires for the fine (to kalon), it also gives rise to a tendency to form unlimited non-rational desires for other things. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Phronesis Brill

Aristotle and the Origins of Evil

Müller, Jozef
Phronesis , Volume 65 (2): 45 – Nov 8, 2019
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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
Copyright © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0031-8868
eISSN
1568-5284
DOI
10.1163/15685284-12342099
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

AbstractWhy do human beings, on Aristotle’s view, have an innate tendency to badness, that is, to developing desires that go beyond and against their natural needs? Given Aristotle’s teleological assumptions (including the thesis that nature does nothing in vain), such tendency should not be present. I argue that the culprit is to be found in the workings of rationality, in particular in the (necessary) presence of theoretical reason. As theoretical reason requires that human beings have unlimited non-rational desires for the fine (to kalon), it also gives rise to a tendency to form unlimited non-rational desires for other things.

Journal

Phronesis – Brill

Published: Nov 8, 2019

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