Dialectics and definition: methodological problems in Aristotles ethics

Author(s)

Eduardo Wolf Pereira

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD)
• Defense date: 2017-05-08

Examining board members

Marco Antonio de Avila Zingano; Luisa Severo Buarque de Holanda; Carlo Natali; João Carlos Brum Torres; Raphael Zillig

• Advisor: Marco Antonio de Avila Zingano

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to characterize the method employed by Aristotle in his Nicomachean Ethics by analyzing two different interpretations: on the one hand, the traditional thesis which considers the methodology of Aristotles practical philosophy as strictly dialectic; on the other hand, the alternative thesis, only recently explored, which indicates the use, in the NE, of a philosophical procedure similar to the prescriptions suggested by Aristotle in the Posterior Analytics for the search for definitions in the context of his scientific works. The core of the first thesis will be analyzed from two perspectives: (i) by examining a set of Aristotles texts which should reveal the dialectical character that marks Aristotelian philosophy; (ii) by evaluating the process of expansion the notion of dialectics experienced during the last century and its consequences to the study of Aristotle. The alternative view (i) will be examined in terms of a model for the search for definitions and how it can bring together the Ethics and the Posterior Analytics, on the one hand, and to avoid dialectical reasoning, on the other. Finally, I propose a deflationary version of the dialectical method. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 12/06639-0 - Dialectic and Definition: Problems of Method in Aristotelian Ethics
• Grantee: Eduardo Wolf Pereira
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate