Philosophy of Desire 3: Aristotle and Prohairesis
Keywords:
Deliberative choice, theory of action, practical syllogism, prohairesisAbstract
One of the fundamental theses inside the Aristotelian ethics is that virtue, and therefore happiness depends on ourselves. To explain this, Aristotle develops a theory of voluntariness, where the main concept is prohairesis. However, when Aristotle tries to explain human action (although animal movement too) through the so-called “practical syllogism”, he fails to tell us clearly and distinctly, what role prohairesis plays there, reprehensible obscurity given the importance of such concept. Then, the purpose of this article is to explain what the place of prohairesis within the practical syllogism is. In this process, we will find that the question "what is prohairesis?" is inaccurate and that we rather must ask ourselves “what are prohaireseis?”, since we can identify three different types of it, which we are going to explain in the following.
References
Araujo, M., Marías, J. (2002). [EN] Aristóteles. Ética a Nicómaco. Madrid: CEPC.
Araujo, M., Marías, J. (2005). [Pol.] Aristóteles. Política. Madrid: CEPC.
Armstrong, G. C. (1935). [MM] Aristotle. Magna Moralia. Cambridge: Loeb Classical Library.
Arpostle, H. (1975). Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics. London: D. Reidel Publishing Company.
Bartlett, R., Collins, S. (2011). Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Boeri, M. (2010). [DA] Aristóteles. Acerca del alma. Buenos Aires: Editorial Colihue.
Broadie, S. (1991). Ethics with Aristotle. New York: Oxford University Press.
Broadie, S., Rowe, C. (2002). Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics. Oxford: OUP.
Calvo Martínez, J. L. (2001). Aristóteles. Ética a Nicómaco. Madrid: Alianza Editorial.
Crisp, R. (2000). Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Charles, D. (1984). Aristotle’s Philosophy of Action. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Frede, M. (2011). A Free Will. Origins of the Notion in Ancient Thought. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Forster, E. S. (1961). [MA] Aristotle. Movement of Animals. Cambridge: Loeb Classical Library.
Gómez Robledo, A. (1983). Aristóteles. Ética Nicomaquea. Ciudad de México: UNAM.
Gómez Robledo, A. (1994). [EE] Aristóteles. Ética Eudemia. Ciudad de México: UNAM.
Hett, W. S. (1957). [Probl.] Aristotle. Problems (2 Vols.)
Inwood, B., Woolf, R. (2013). Aristotle. Eudemian Ethics. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Irwin, T. (1999). Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing.
Kenny, A. (1979). Aristotle’s Theory of the Will. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Kenny, A. (2011). Aristotle. Eudemian Ethics. New York: Oxford University Press.
Martínez Casado, Á. et al. (1993). Santo Tomás de Aquino. Suma de Teología, Madrid: BAC.
Martínez de Merlo, L. (2007). Dante Alighieri. Divina Comedia. Madrid: Cátedra.
Megino, C. (2002). Aristóteles. Ética Eudemia. Madrid, Alianza.
Mele, A. (1981). Choice and virtue in the Nicomachean Ethics, Journal of the History of Philosophy, 19(4), 405-423. DOI: 10.1353/hph.2008.0050
Mele, A. (1984). Aristotle’s Wish, Journal of the History of Philosophy, 22(2), 139-156. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/hph.1984.0022
Meyer, S. S. (1993). Aristotle on Moral Responsibility. Cambridge: Blackwell.
Nielsen, K. M. (2011). Deliberation as Inquiry: Aristotle’s Alternative to the Presumption of Open Alternatives, The Philosophical Review, 120(3), 383-421. DOI 10.1215/00318108-1263683
Nielsen, K. M. (2012) The Will – Origin of the Notion in Aristotle’s Thought, Antiquorum Philosophia 6, 47-68.
Nielsen, K. M. (2018). Deliberation and decision in the Magna Moralia and Eudemian Ethics. En Brink, D., Meyer, S., Shields, C. (eds.), Virtue, Happiness and Knowledge. Themes From the Work of Gail Fine and Terence Irwin, (pp. 197-215). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Nussbaum, M. (1978). Aristotle’s De Motu Animalium. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Pallí Bonet, J. (1984). Aristóteles. Ética Nicomaquea. Madrid: Editorial Gredos.
Rackham, H. (1956). Aristotle. Eudemian Ethics. Cambridge: Loeb Classical Library.
Ramos-Umaña, L. (2021). Filosofía del deseo 1: Aristóteles y el thymós. Tópicos, (62), 65–95. https://doi.org/10.21555/top.v62i0.1638
Ramos-Umaña, L. (2022), Proaíresis en Epicteto. NOVA TELLVS, 40(2), julio/diciembre 2022, 53-81. https://doi.org/10.19130/iifl.nt.2022.40.2.0021X53
Reeve, C. D. C. (2014). Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company.
Ross, W. D. (1925). Aristotle. Ethica Nicomachea. London: Oxford University Press.
Sinnott, E. (2010). Aristóteles. Ética Nicomaquea. Buenos Aires: Colihue.
Solomon, M. A. (1925). Aristotle. Ethica Eudemia. London: Oxford University Press.
Susemihl, F. (1903). Aristotelis. Ethica Nicomachea. Leipzig: Teubner.
Taylor, C. C. W. (2007). Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics (books II-IV). New York: Oxford University Press.
Tovar, A. (2003). [Rhet.] Aristóteles. Retórica. Madrid: CEPC.
Vigo, A. (2006). Estudios Aristotélicos. Barañáin: Ediciones Universidad de Navarra.
Vigo, A. (2012), Deliberación y decisión según Aristóteles. Tópicos, Revista de Filosofía (43), 51-92. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21555/top.v0i43.32
Walzer, R. R., Mingay, J. M. (1991). Aristotelis. Ethica Eudemia. New York: Oxford University Press.
Woods, M. (1992). Aristotle. Eudemian Ethics (books I, II and VII). New York: Oxford University Press.
Zaragoza, J. (1993). [Memorabilia] Jenofonte. Recuerdos de Sócrates. Madrid: Editorial Gredos.
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Eidos
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:1. The Author retains copyright in the Work, where the term "Work" shall include all digital objects that may result in subsequent electronic publication or distribution.
2. Upon acceptance of the Work, the author shall grant to the Publisher the right of first publication of the Work.
The Author shall grant to the Publisher a nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons 3.0 License Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported CC BY-NC 3.0, or its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions: (a) Attribution: Other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site;(b) Noncommercial: Other users (including Publisher) may not use this Work for commercial purposes;
4. The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
5. Authors are permitted, and Eidos promotes, to post online the preprint manuscript of the Work in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (see The Effect of Open Access). Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work is expected be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Eidos's assigned URL to the Article and its final published version in Eidos.
