The Problem of Imperativity in Aristotle’s Ethics

Abstract

The aim of the article is to show imperativity as an important element of Aristotle's Ethics, and to verify N. White’s findings that Aristotle’s imperativity is a part of virtue.

In the first part of the article the use of the word deon (ought, right, duty) by Aristotle is analysed. It is concluded that imperative modality is not just present in the texts of his Ethics at the lexical level as an expression of everyday word usage, without any ethical sense, and that it can not be reduced to expressing the standard of the behaviour adopted in the polis, but is a part of describing the process of the development of virtues. It is devoid of any specific content, is not used for the formulation of standards, but reveals moral imperativity functionally, i.e. as correspondence of a human being to his nature.

In the second part of the article, this functional role of imperativity in Aristotle’s philosophy is concretized at the level of possible knowledge about the moral aspect of human existence (ethics), as well as at the level of human existence itself. It is concluded that: 1) at the knowledge level imperativity is the functional connection of episteme (science) and practice, through the principle “a human being is a good human being”; 2) on the existence level, it is: a) a coercive effect of sense of practical wisdom on the ethical virtues and vice versa (which can be interpreted as the effect of forming a virtuous frame of soul, that is the impact of the formal cause), b) a manifestation of existential priority of virtue over vice in the impact on human behavior (which provides the stability of the proper development, and consequently, can be considered as an effect of the final cause).