Evil in Aristotle

Provides the first full study of Aristotle's notion of evil and sheds light on its content, potential, and influence.

Pavlos Kontos (Edited by)

9781316614150, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 9 January 2020

285 pages
23.2 x 15.1 x 1.5 cm, 0.42 kg

'This is the first volume devoted to Aristotle's thoughts on evil or badness (to kakon). The work calls attention to several relatively neglected areas of scholarship, and the contributions give any reader grounds for thinking that Aristotle has thoughts about to kakon that are sophisticated and worthy of deep philosophical engagement.' Samuel Baker, Journal of the History of Philosophy

Aristotle's notion of evil is highly elaborate and attractive, yet has been largely overlooked by philosophers. While most recent studies of evil focus on modern understandings of the concept, this volume shows that Aristotle's theory is an invaluable resource for our contemporary understanding of it. Twelve leading scholars reconstruct the account of evil latent in Aristotle's metaphysics, biology, psychology, ethics, and politics, and detect Aristotelian patterns of thought that operate at certain landmark moments in the history of philosophy from ancient thought to modern day debates. The book pays particular attention to Aristotle's understanding of 'radical evil', an important and much disputed topic. Original and systematic, this study is the first to provide a full exploration of evil in Aristotle's work, shedding light on its content, potential, and influence. The volume will appeal to scholars of ancient Greek philosophy as well as to moral philosophers and to historians of philosophy.

Introduction Pavlos Kontos
Part I. Kakon in Aristotle's Metaphysics and Biology: 1. Good and bad in Aristotle C. D. C. Reeve
2. Badness as posteriority to capacity in metaphysics Theta 9 Jonathan Beere
3. The good, the bad, and the ugly: natural teleology and its failures in Aristotle Stasinos Stavrianeas
Part II. Kakon in Aristotle's Practical Philosophy: 4. Radical evil in Aristotle's Ethics and Politics Pavlos Kontos
5. Aristotelian demons Howard J. Curzer
6. Aristotle on psychopathology Giles Pearson
7. Aristotle on enduring evils while staying happy Marta Jimenez
8. The political kakon: the lowest forms of constitutions Richard Kraut
Part III. The Presence of Aristotle in Post-Aristotelian Philosophy: 9. Plotinus against Aristotle on the problem of evil Paul Kalligas
10. Being bad: Aristotelian resonances in Aquinas' conception of evil Kevin L. Flannery, S.J.
11. Virtue and vice in Aristotle and Kant Stephen Engstrom
12. Practical unintelligence and the vices Daniel C. Russell.

Subject Areas: Western philosophy: Ancient, to c 500 [HPCA], Philosophy [HP]