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Life
He argued that modern moral arguments never resolve because we inherited the vocabulary of virtue while losing the shared way of life that gave it meaning.
He classified the world. Logic, biology, ethics, politics; he gave each its language.
Connection
Aristotle virtue ethics revived Alasdair MacIntyre — MacIntyre's After Virtue argued for recovering Aristotle's idea that virtues are habits built through participation in shared practices and traditions, making him one of the central architects of the twentieth century's revival of Aristotelian ethics.
Ideas
Words
“I can only answer the question 'What am I to do?' if I can answer the prior question 'Of what story or stories do I find myself a part?'”
“A virtue is an acquired human quality the possession and exercise of which tends to enable us to achieve those goods which are internal to practices.”
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”
Key Moments
1981
Publishes After Virtue
c. 1983
Converts to Catholicism
384 BCE
Born in Stagira
c. 367 BCE
Joining the Academy
343 BCE
Tutor to Alexander
335 BCE
Founding of the Lyceum
Works
After Virtue
Nicomachean Ethics
Politics
Metaphysics
Poetics