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639The morality of happinessOxford University Press. 1993.Ancient ethical theories, based on the notions of virtue and happiness, have struck many as an attractive alternative to modern theories. But we cannot find out whether this is true until we understand ancient ethics--and to do this we need to examine the basic structure of ancient ethical theory, not just the details of one or two theories. In this book, Annas brings together the results of a wide-ranging study of ancient ethical philosophy and presents it in a way that is easily accessible to …Read more
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117Platonic ethics, old and newCornell University Press. 1999.Offers a fundamental reexamination of Plato's ethical thought, highlighting the differences between ancient & modern assumptions & stressing the need to be ...
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102Sextus Empiricus: Outlines of Scepticism (edited book)Cambridge University Press. 1994.Outlines of Scepticism, by the Greek philosopher Sextus Empiricus, is a work of major importance for the history of Greek philosophy. It is the fullest extant account of ancient scepticism, and it is also one of our most copious sources of information about the other Hellenistic philosophies. Its first part contains an elaborate exposition of the Pyrrhonian variety of scepticism; its second and third parts are critical and destructive, arguing against 'dogmatism' in logic, epistemology, science …Read more
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36Virtue and Action: Selected Papers (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2023.This volume brings together a selection of Rosalind Hursthouse’s essays on Aristotle, virtue ethics, and social philosophy. These articles—many of which are published in more obscure venues—provide valuable context and clarification for much of her more famous work on virtue ethics while drawing attention to new avenues of philosophical investigation Hursthouse pursued. Important contributions include articles on the development of virtue in children, what the Aristotelian practically wise perso…Read more
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1Ought' in Aristotle's Nicomachean EthicsIn David Owen Brink, Susan Sauvé Meyer & Christopher John Shields (eds.), Virtue, happiness, knowledge: themes from the work of Gail Fine and Terence Irwin, Oxford University Press. 2018.It is sometimes argued that Aristotle has no distinctive way of making deontic claims; some, however, argue that his ethics depends on deontic claims. In this article I survey all the uses in the Nicomachean Ethics of the deontic terms dei and chre, and also a grammatical form of the verb which is used to make deontic claims. I argue that the correct view of the place in Aristotle of deontic claims lies between the two familiar extremes. Aristotle does make deontic claims, but they are not indep…Read more
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4Pamela Huby and Gordon Neal, eds., The criterion of Truth. Essays written in honour of George Kerferd, together with a text and translation (with annotations) of Ptolemy'§ 'On the Kriterion and Hegemonikon'. (Liverpool, Liverpool University Press, 1989), pp. xiv + 301,£12.50. ISBN 0-85323-155-9 (hardcover) (review)Polis 9 (2): 211-213. 1990.
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24New Perspectives on Plato, Modern and AncientHarvard University Press. 2002.Recently, scholars have looked more closely at the philosophical importance of the imaginative and literary aspects of Plato's writing, and have begun to appreciate the methods of ancient philosophers and commentators who studied Plato. This study brings together leading philosophical and literary scholars to investigate these new-old approaches.
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17Metaphysics Books M and N (edited book)Clarendon Press. 1988.M and N, the last two books of the Metaphysics, are Aristotle's only sustained venture into the philosophy of mathematics. In them, he criticizes Plato's theories and suggests alternatives of his own. This commentary concentrates on the continuing philosophical interest of these books rather than on scholarly controversies, and will provide a clear introduction for students, including those without Greek, to an unjustly neglected part of Aristotle's work. This paperback edition replaces the outs…Read more
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81Virtuous People and Moral ReasonsEthical Theory and Moral Practice 1-12. forthcoming.Do we have a unified pre-theoretical concept of morality? This paper makes a start on the larger argument that we do not, by countering criticisms of virtue ethics on the ground that it does not adequately capture such a pre-theoretical concept. One criticism is discussed and met, namely that the reasons on which virtuous people act fail to have the special force of moral reasons.
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38Reply to: Amichai Amit, Ikbal Bozkaya, S. Stewart Braun, Kristina Gehrman, Richard Hamilton, Matthew Sharpe, Will Small, Matthew Stichter, Denise Vigani, Tiger ZhengJournal of Value Inquiry 55 (2): 387-395. 2021.
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4Classical Thought. Vol. 1 Of A History of Western Philosophy (review)Philosophical Review 101 (3): 636-638. 1992.
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46Happiness as achievementDaedalus 133 (2): 44-51. 2004.One of the best places to seek understanding of happiness is the study of ancient ethical theories and of those modern theories which share their eudaimonist concerns. For these recognize, and build on, some of our thoughts about happiness that have become overwhelmed by the kind of consideration that emerges in the claim that happiness is obviously subjective. Given the systematically disappointing results of the database approach, it is time to look seriously at our alternatives
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1The Modes of Scepticism. Ancient Texts and Modern InterpretationsTijdschrift Voor Filosofie 50 (3): 545-545. 1988.
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148Plato, Republic V–VIIRoyal Institute of Philosophy Lecture Series 20 3-18. 1986.The long section on knowledge and the philosopher in books V–VII of the Republic is undoubtedly the most famous passage in Plato's work. So it is perhaps a good idea to begin by stressing how very peculiar, and in many ways elusive, it is. It is exciting, and stimulating, but extremely hard to understand.
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147Kent F. Moors: Glaucon and Adeimantus on Justice: the structure of argument in book 2 of Plato's Republic. Pp. x + 145. Washington, DC.: University Press of America, 1981. $20 (review)The Classical Review 32 (2): 283-284. 1982.
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14The Stoic Idea of the City, by Malcolm Schofield. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991. ISBN 0521 39470 8. Pp. xii + 164.£27.95/ $44.95 (review)Polis 11 (1): 95-101. 1992.
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3Plato's Republic and FeminismIn Gail Fine (ed.), Plato 2: Ethics, Politics, Religion, and the Soul, Oxford University Press. 1999.
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Epicurus on AgencyIn Jacques Brunschwig & Martha C. Nussbaum (eds.), Passions and Perceptions: Studies in Hellenistic Philosophy of Mind, Cambridge University Press. pp. 53-71. 1993.Epicurus' answers to the problem of how we can be free agents in his atomic world do not seem at first to cohere. I examine all of them, including a notorious papyrus fragment.
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Cicero’s De Finibus (edited book)Cambridge University Press. 2016.Cicero is increasingly recognised as a highly intelligent contributor to the ongoing ethical debates between Epicureans, Stoics and other schools. In this work on the fundamentals of ethics his learning as a scholar, his skill as a lawyer and his own passion for the truth result in a work which dazzles us in its presentation of the debates and at the same time exhibits the detachment of the ancient sceptic. Many kinds of reader will find themselves engaged with Cicero as well as with the ethical…Read more
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3Plato the ScepticIn James Klagge & Nicholas Smith (eds.), Methods of Interpreting Plato and his Dialogues, Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, Supplementary Volume, . pp. 43-72. 1992.
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164Intelligent VirtueOxford University Press. 2011.Julia Annas offers a new account of virtue and happiness as central ethical ideas. She argues that exercising a virtue involves practical reasoning of the kind we find in someone exercising an everyday practical skill, such as farming, building, or playing the piano. This helps us to see virtue as part of an agent's happiness or flourishing.
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69Hellenistic Philosophy of MindUniversity of California Press. 1992."Hellenistic Philosophy of Mind" is an elegant survey of Stoic and Epicurean ideas about the soul an introduction to two ancient schools whose belief in the soul's physicality offer compelling parallels to modern approaches in the ...