Moral Virtue and the Limits of the Political Community in Aristotle'sNicomachean Ethics

Abstract

The recovery of Aristotle's view of the political community as guardian of the common good and moral educator has fueled a continuing debate about civic education and virtue. In focusing on the relation of virtue to the common good and that of the individual, however, this debate has obscured Aristotle's insight into virtue's status as an independent end. I argue that by taking account of this dimension of virtue, Aristotle's discussion of the particular moral virtues in the Nicomachean Ethics clarifies the nature and limits of civic education and shows that the full question of the human good emerges only with an investigation of the political community's highest and noblest pedagogic aims.

Between Justice and Accumulation: Aristotle on Currency and Reciprocity

“…"The relation between the people will be the same as the relation between the things involved" (NE 1131a21). 76 This does not mean however that currency always introduces arithmetic equality. Instead, as we saw, reciprocal exchange is based on proportional equality.…”