The Unity of the Virtues in the Eudemian Ethics

The Unity of the Virtues in the Eudemian Ethics is the first monograph in English entirely dedicated to Aristotle''s long understudied Eudemian Ethics, now in the process of being rediscovered thanks to the new Greek edition of the text. This book argues that in the Eudemian Ethics, Aristotle develops a distinctive philosophical proposal pertaining to how the virtues (or excellences) are unified and co-function together. It sheds light on core topics in Aristotle''s ethics such as practical wisdom, character virtues, theoretical thinking, the excellent agent, and happiness.

Based on the most recent Greek edition of Aristotle''s Eudemian Ethics (EE), The Unity of the Virtues in the Eudemian Ethics provides a fresh look at the treatise, arguing that all the virtues-of character, of practical and theoretical thinking-form a unity in the sense that they function together. Giulia Bonasio refers to this unity as Functional Unity. She approaches the EE as a treatise in its own right aside from the connections with the Nicomachean Ethics and shows that understanding its philosophical proposal is fundamental for a full picture of Aristotle''s ethics. The EE defends a unity of the virtues that is more comprehensive than the unity of practical wisdom and the character virtues, which is traditionally ascribed to the Nicomachean Ethics. Bonasio argues that the virtues of theoretical thinking have a fundamental role in this unity and that all the virtues stand in a network of interactions. Her book reconstructs the unity of the parts of the soul, and sheds light on the role in Aristotle''s ethics of practical wisdom, the character virtues, the virtues of practical thinking, the virtues of theoretical thinking, the excellent agent, and happiness.