Method, causation, and goodness in Aristotle's ethics

• Grant number: 16/09861-7
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Visiting Researcher Grant - Brazil
• Start date: October 01, 2016
• End date: September 30, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - History of Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Marco Antônio de Ávila Zingano
• Grantee: Marco Antônio de Ávila Zingano
• Visiting researcher: Raphael Zillig
• Visiting researcher institution: Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH), Brazil
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 15/05317-8 - Theories of causation and human agency in ancient Greek philosophy, AP.TEM

Abstract

Causation has a central role in Antiquity. From the pre-socratics on to late Greek philosophy, not only what causes what is a perennial object of investigation, but also, and more importantly, what is it like, to be a cause. There is also, in Antiquity, a direct connection between physical causation and moral responsibility. This is evident in the very notion of "aitios", which at first designated the person who is responsible for an action, specially in its jurudicial sense of being blamable for something, but quickly incorporated the neuter notion of being the cause, as we employ it in physical explanations. This link will be preserved throughout Greek philosophy. This research project aims to scrutinize dfifferent theories of causation proposed in Antiquity and to see their impact on the corresponding moral doctrines in what regards theories of human agency. (AU)