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The fragility of goodness : luck and ethics in Greek tragedy and philosophy

Title
The fragility of goodness : luck and ethics in Greek tragedy and philosophy / Martha C. Nussbaum.
ISBN
052179126X
9780521791267
0521794722
9780521794725
Edition
Revised edition.
Publication
Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2001.
Physical Description
xlv, 544 pages ; 24 cm
Summary
"This book is a study of ancient views about "moral luck." It examines the fundamental ethical problem that many of the valued constituents of a well-lived life are vulnerable to factors outside a person's control and asks how this affects our appraisal of persons and their lives. The Greeks made a profound contribution to these questions, yet neither the problems nor the Greek views of the them have received the attention they deserve. This book thus recovers a central dimension of Greek thought and addresses major issues in contemporary ethical theory. One of its most original aspects is its interrelated treatment of both literary and philosophical texts." "The Fragility of Goodness has proven to be important reading for philosophers and classicists, and its nontechnical style makes it accessible to any educated person interested in the difficult problems it tackles."--Jacket.
Format
Books
Language
English
Added to Catalog
June 03, 2015
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 512-525) and indexes.
Contents
ch. 1. Luck and ethics
pt. 1. Tragedy: fragility and ambition
ch. 2. Aeschylus and practical conflict
ch. 3. Sophocles' Antigone: conflict, vision, and simplification
pt. 2. Plato: goodness without fragility?
ch. 4. The Protagoras: a science of practical reasoning
Interlude 1: Plato's anti-tragic theater
ch. 5. The Republic: true value and the standpoint of perfection
ch. 6. The speech of Alcibiades: a reading of the Symposium
ch. 7. 'This story isn't true': madness, reason, and recantation in the Phaedrus
pt. 3. Aristotle: the fragility of the good human life
ch. 8. Saving Aristotle's appearances
ch. 9. Rational animals and the explanation of action
ch. 10. Non-scientific deliberation
ch. 11. The vulnerability of the good human life: activity and disaster
ch. 12. The vulnerability of the good human life: relational goods
Appendix to part 3: human and divine
Interlude 2: luck and the tragic emotions
Epilogue: tragedy
ch. 13. The betrayal of convention: a reading of Euripides' Hecuba.
Genre/Form
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
History.
Citation

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