Richard King

Aristotle is the first philosopher to give an account of memory based on _phantasia_, a very broad, non-cognitive power of the soul. But how he distinguishes _phantasia_ when not used in memory, from memory, is not easy to say. Two fundamental strategies for making this contrast may be crudely distinguished—we may call their proponents ‘the Activist’ and ‘the Phenomenalist’. An Activist will say that Aristotle will say: imagining is doing something different from remembering. A Phenomenalist will say that memories and imaginings appear different to their subject. The aim of this chapter is to show that neither Phenomenalist nor Activist can stand alone in an account of memory such as Aristotle’s. For, to put it in a slogan, remembering is an activity involving appearances.

Bernard Williams’ notion of “thick concepts” provides useful targets for comparative philosophy, in that such concepts appear to be behind common terms in many different languages. Words routinely translated “courage” occur both in the Xunzi《荀子》and Aristotle, but what lies behind these terms (such as yong 勇, andreia) is very different indeed. One similarity is however surprising: yong in the Xunzi in itself is not straightforwardly a virtue, just as only a certain form of andreia is in Aristotle. Furthermore, both are role virtues, applying to different roles in each case. In the best form, they apply to the officers and gentleman on the one hand, and on the other to the citizen soldier prepared to die for his city because that is the fine thing to do.

Chinese and Greco-Roman ethics present highly articulate views on how one should live; both of these traditions remain influential in modern philosophy. The question arises how these traditions can be compared with one another. Comparative ethics is a relatively young discipline; this volume is a major contribution to the field. Fundamental questions about the nature of comparing ethics are treated in two introductory chapters, and core issues in each of the traditions are addressed: harmony, virtue, friendship, knowledge, the relation of ethics to morality, relativism, emotions, being and unity, simplicity and complexity, and prediction.