Moral And Intellectual Virtues In The Earliest Latin Commentaries On The Nicomachean Ethics

Abstract

This chapter outlines the role assigned by the Arts Masters to the moral ( consuetudinales ) and intellectual virtues, investigating both the adherence of the masters to Aristotle?s thought and the affinity of their positions with theological thought. For this purpose the chapter examines the general exposition of these two main classes of virtues in their commentaries on Nicomachean Ethics 2.1?2, where Aristotle explains why virtue is twofold and discusses the characteristics of moral virtues, and on Nicomachean Ethics 1.13, where he lists the three intellectual virtues. The analysis in this chapter is based on the four, mostly fragmentary, commentaries on the Ethica vetus : the Commentarium abrincense in Ethicam ueterem , the Commentary of Paris , the commentary of Pseudo-Peckham, and the commentary of Robert Kilwardby. The exposition of the final part of the Ethica nova has been preserved only in Pseudo-Peckham?s and Kilwardby?s commentaries. Keywords: Aristotle; Commentary of Paris ; consuetudinales ; Ethica nova ; Ethica vetus ; intellectual virtue; Nicomachean Ethics ; Pseudo-Peckham; Robert Kilwardby