Human Goodness: Pragmatic Variations on Platonic Themes

Description

Human Goodness presents an original, pragmatic moral theory that successfully revives and revitalizes the classical Greek concept of happiness. It also includes in-depth discussions of our freedoms, our obligations, and our virtues, as well as adroit comparisons with the moral theories of Kant and Hume. Paul Schollmeier explains that the Greeks define happiness as an activity that we may perform for its own sake. Obvious examples might include telling stories, making music, or dancing. He then demonstrates that we may use the pragmatic method to discover and to define innumerable activities of this kind. Schollmeier's demonstration rests on the modest assumption that our happiness takes not one ideal form, but many empirical forms.

Paul Schollmeier is professor and chair in the department of philosophy at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He is the author of Other Selves: Aristotle on Personal and Political Friendship and the co-editor of The Greeks and Us: Essays in Honor of A.W.H. Adkins.

"Schollmeier has...reminded us how infinitely fascinating and important the Platonic conception of happiness is." Alan Pichanick, St. John's College, Annapolis