Aristotle on virtuous action and the role of virtue in making the ends right

• Grant number: 22/03987-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: October 10, 2022
• End date: October 09, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - History of Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Roberto Bolzani Filho
• Grantee: Victor Gonçalves de Sousa
• Supervisor: Jennifer Elaine Whiting
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of Pittsburgh (Pitt), United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 19/05555-7 - Practical reason and the determination of the ends of action in Aristotle, BP.DR

Abstract

This project aims at exploring the relantionship between two claims of Aristotle: the claim we become virtuous by performing virtuous actions and the claim that virtue makes the end right. In do doing, I would like to offer a reading of Aristotle's account of moral habituation according to which only fully virtuous agents can decide on and perform virtuous actions for their own sakes (or for the sake of the fine). In that case, it would be possible to argue that virtue makes the ends right in so far as it enables one to decide on virtuous actions for their own sakes, and thence to perform virtuous actions for their own sakes. To do so, I will center my attention on two issues: Aristotle's philosophy of action, with special attention to how he conceives of and describes virtuous actions, understanding what make them virtuous in the first place; and Aristotle's account of moral habituation in the EN. and in the EE. (AU)