Preliminary: Discuss 4 causes, categories, philosophophical anthropology, relationship to Plato; influence of medicine and politics.

1. Review the descriptive/prescriptive distinction; spend a little bit more time of method of reconstruction as in Nelson Goodman.

2. Working through the text, and Aristotle's discussion of happiness, introduce and explain the intrinsic/extrinsic value distinction.

3. Working through the text, discuss Aristotle's criticism of different theories from his own.

4. Introduced the concept of the mean in Aristotle; make sure to distinguish this from statistical meanings. Explain that an aesthetic analogy would be more appropriate. Use the example of a famous painting, or of an over or underdone Tai Chi or other martial arts movement.

        Having done this, discuss the matter of judgment involved; tie this in with Aristotle's ideas about the appropriate age for the study of ethics. Discuss problems that might arise due to different methods of training; also discuss problems that might arise from using different arts as your paradigm arts; discuss influence of cultural gender constructs, and the attitude towards "barbarians."

5. Now, go through some of the virtues such as generosity, courage, and pride. Make sure in the presentation to discuss these and Aristotelian virtue in general as habits/dispositions.

Michael Kagan
Le Moyne College
Revised 3/11/01; some additions 10.10.2018