Book contents
- Augustine on the Nature of Virtue and Sin
- Augustine on the Nature of Virtue and Sin
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- A Note on Translations and Abbreviations
- 1 Introducing the Issues
- 2 Political Virtues?
- 3 Political Vices?
- 4 Augustine’s Definitions of Virtue
- 5 Augustine’s Place within the Eudaimonist Tradition
- 6 The Life in Accordance with Nature
- 7 Self-Love and Neighbour-Love
- 8 The Nature of Sin
- 9 Weakness, Ignorance, and Pride
- Bibliography
- Index
4 - Augustine’s Definitions of Virtue
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 January 2024
Book contents
- Augustine on the Nature of Virtue and Sin
- Augustine on the Nature of Virtue and Sin
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- A Note on Translations and Abbreviations
- 1 Introducing the Issues
- 2 Political Virtues?
- 3 Political Vices?
- 4 Augustine’s Definitions of Virtue
- 5 Augustine’s Place within the Eudaimonist Tradition
- 6 The Life in Accordance with Nature
- 7 Self-Love and Neighbour-Love
- 8 The Nature of Sin
- 9 Weakness, Ignorance, and Pride
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
This chapter asks whether Augustine criticised Stoicism and Platonism because he thought that there was something fundamentally flawed about the eudaimonist approach to ethics, or whether he criticised Stoicism and Platonism because he thought that these philosophies had insufficiently understood eudaimonism itself. It finds that the latter explanation is correct: in reaching this conclusion, this chapter establishes that Augustine defined virtue and vice, or sin, from within the eudaimonist tradition, making use of the ideas of love as eros and philia, and of the highest good, or summum bonum.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Augustine on the Nature of Virtue and Sin , pp. 119 - 162Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023