Article ID: CBB738904085

Sungnōmē in Aristotle (2017)

unapi

Aristotle claims that in some extenuating circumstances, the correct response to the wrongdoer is sungnōmē rather than blame. Sungnōmē has a wide spectrum of meanings that include aspects of sympathy, pity, fellow-feeling, pardon, and excuse, but the dominant interpretation among scholars takes Aristotle’s meaning to correspond most closely to forgiveness. Thus, it is commonly held that the virtuous Aristotelian agent ought to forgive wrongdoers in specific extenuating circumstances. Against the more popular forgiveness interpretation, I begin by defending a positive account of sungnōmē as the correct judgment that a wrongdoer deserves excuse since she was not blameworthy. I will then argue that as sungnōmē is merited on the grounds of fairness, this shows that both the forgiveness interpretation and a third, alternative interpretation of sungnōmē as sympathy mischaracterize both the justification for sungnōmē and its nature. Moreover, I will argue that Aristotle not only lacks an account of forgiveness but in fact, his account of blame is incompatible with forgiveness altogether.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB738904085/

Similar Citations

Article Pakaluk, Michael; (2010)
The Great Question of Practical Truth, and a Diminutive Answer (/isis/citation/CBB000933357/)

Article Vaccarezza, Maria Silvia; (2012)
Aristotele e le virtù sociali, EN IV, 1126b 10--1128b 9 (/isis/citation/CBB001252964/)

Article Segvic, Heda; (2004)
Aristotle on the Varieties of Goodness (/isis/citation/CBB000502250/)

Article Müller, Jörn; (2006)
Aristoteles und der naturalistische Fehlschluß (/isis/citation/CBB000933647/)

Article Karbowski, Joseph; (2015)
Is Aristotle's Eudemian Ethics Quasi-Mathematical? (/isis/citation/CBB001552141/)

Article Thorsrud, Harald; (2015)
Aristotle's Dichotomous Anthropology: What is Most Human in the Nicomachean Ethics? (/isis/citation/CBB001552140/)

Book William Boos; Florence S. Boos; (2018)
Metamathematics and the Philosophical Tradition (/isis/citation/CBB060593902/)

Article Howard J. Curzer; (2016)
Rules Lurking at the Heart of Aristotle’s Virtue Ethics (/isis/citation/CBB716496105/)

Article Neria, Chaim Meir; (2013)
Al-Farabi's Lost Commentary on the Ethics: New Textual Evidence (/isis/citation/CBB001252564/)

Article Viktor Ilievski; (2018)
Theodicy and Moral Responsibility in the Myth of Er (/isis/citation/CBB142199590/)

Book Thumiger Chiara; (2018)
Mental Illness in Ancient Medicine (/isis/citation/CBB513291278/)

Book Fine, Gail; (1999)
Plato 2: Ethics, politics, religion and the soul (/isis/citation/CBB000110607/)

Book Graham, Angus Charles; Mo, Di; (2003)
Later Mohist Logic, Ethics, and Science (/isis/citation/CBB000470777/)

Book Alexander of Aphrodisias, ; Sharples, R. W.; (2008)
Alexander Aphrodisiensis, De anima libri mantissa: A New Edition of the Greek Text with Introduction and Commentary (/isis/citation/CBB001450696/)

Article Zingano, Marco; (2015)
The Conceptual Unity of Friendship in the Eudemian and the Nicomachean Ethics (/isis/citation/CBB001551204/)

Book Theokritos Kouremenos; (2019)
Plato's Forms, Mathematics and Astronomy (/isis/citation/CBB619986511/)

Book C. C. W. Taylor; (1999)
The Atomists: Leucippus and Democritus: Fragments (/isis/citation/CBB857701853/)

Article Nicholas R. Baima; (2018)
Playing with Intoxication: On the Cultivation of Shame and Virtue in Plato’s Laws (/isis/citation/CBB840474327/)

Authors & Contributors
Gaca, Kathy L.
Howard J. Curzer
Viktor Ilievski
Kerimov, Khafiz
Thumiger, Chiara
Karbowski, Joseph
Concepts
Ethics
Philosophy
Soul (philosophy)
Mathematics
Psychology
Logic
Time Periods
Ancient
Zhou dynasty (China, 1122-221 B.C.)
Medieval
20th century, early
20th century
10th century
Places
Greece
Rome (Italy)
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment