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Aristotelian Ethics
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Aristotelian Ethics

A special issue of Philosophies (ISSN 2409-9287). This special issue belongs to the section "Virtues".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 November 2025 | Viewed by 582

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Shane D. Drefcinski

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Humanities, University of Wisconsin-Platteville, Platteville, WI 53818, USA
Interests: Aristotle; ancient philosophy; ethics; St. Thomas Aquinas

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

It is indisputable that Aristotle was a genius, and his impact on Western philosophy is incalculable. His Nicomachean Ethics is a masterpiece, and it is as important today as it was when Raphael depicted Aristotle holding it in The School at Athens. Aristotle’s ethical theory has received significant scholarly attention in the last century, and yet there remain new topics to explore and old topics to reconsider.

We are thus pleased to invite you to contribute to this Special Issue on Aristotelian ethics. The aim of this Issue is to investigate topics in Aristotle’s ethical theory. The Special Issue may include fresh examinations of topics such as happiness (eudaimonia), moral virtue (ēthikē aretē), and contemplation (theōria). It may also include new ways to connect Aristotelian ethics to contemporary ethical theories or current ethical challenges.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • What happiness is (eudaimonia);
  • Moral virtue and virtue theory;
  • The connections between ethics and politics;
  • Aristotle’s account of justice and current ethical challenges;
  • Practical reason and human action.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200–500 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send this to Dr. Shane Drefcinski (drefcins@uwplatt.edu) or to the Philosophies Editorial Office (philosophies@mdpi.com). Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editors for the purposes of ensuring a proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo a double-blind peer review.

We look forward to receiving your contributions. Thank you very much.

Prof. Dr. Shane D. Drefcinski
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Philosophies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Aristotle
  • happiness
  • virtue
  • ethics
  • politics
  • justice
  • current ethical challenges
  • practical reasoning and human action

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

15 pages, 235 KiB  
Article
Aristotle’s Attainable and Attributable Phronimos
by Shane D. Drefcinski
Philosophies 2025, 10(3), 63; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies10030063 - 21 May 2025
Viewed by 96
Abstract
Unlike many philosophers in the last quarter of the 20th century, many current scholars of Aristotle are less critical of the doctrine of the reciprocity of the virtues. They recognize that the reciprocity of the virtues is grounded in Aristotle’s accounts of eudaimonia [...] Read more.
Unlike many philosophers in the last quarter of the 20th century, many current scholars of Aristotle are less critical of the doctrine of the reciprocity of the virtues. They recognize that the reciprocity of the virtues is grounded in Aristotle’s accounts of eudaimonia, moral virtue, and phronēsis. However, there remains a concern that if the phronimos must have all the moral virtues in addition to phronēsis, then the phronimos is, for actual humans, unattainable. In what follows, I will argue that Aristotle’s phronimos is intended to be attainable and attributable to actual humans. In Part 2 of the paper, I will set out some preliminary points about the “methodology” Aristotle employs in his ethics, with special attention to the need to reconcile as many of the phenomena as one can and the recognition of the inescapable imprecision of ethics. In Part 3 of the paper, I will discuss passages where Aristotle insists upon the attainability of both eudaimonia and the moral virtues. In Part 4, I will explore how moral virtue and phronēsis admit of degrees and that his distinction between heroic virtue and moral virtue supports the attainability and attributability of the latter. Finally, in Part 5, I will propose a plausible reading of the reciprocity of the virtues that supports the thesis that the phronimos is attainable. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Aristotelian Ethics)
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