Two Dogmas of (Modern) Aristotle Scholarship

Abstract

Two dogmas lie at the heart of modern work on Aristotle's ethical theory. The first is that that theory is essentially secular or non-theistic. The second is that Aristotle's ethics assumes what Gregory Vlastos calls the ‘eudaemonist axiom’. This holds that ‘happiness is desired by all human beings as the ultimate end (telos) of all their rational acts’ (see Socrates: Ironist and Moral Philosopher, p. 203). I argue that these two dogmas are intimately related and both false. In arguing this, I reveal an Aristotle much closer to the mediaeval than to the modern and contemporary interpretative consensus