On the Priorities of Ethics and Metaphysics

Abstract

The article presents some reflections on the relationship between metaphysics and ethics in moral philosophy of Aristotle in connection with A. Sanzhenakov’s paper. His remarks concerning the undervaluation of moral problems in modern analytical studies, focused on human existence, the disregard of axiological discourse, the loss of interest in the metaphysical foundations of moral theory, are very penetrating. It is metaphysics, as a general theory of being, that constitutes its own hierarchy of values, which serves an axiological framework for ethics. However, some of the author's ideas concerning the significant aspects of Aristotle’s moral theory do require some clarification and supplementation. In particular, he emphasized the metaphysical principles of Aristotle's moral philosophy and misses many others that are no less significant. A. Sanzhenakov pays not enough attention to the important distinction between two types of virtue – the ethical virtues and the virtues of contemplation. Lastly, the concept of virtue as an end in itself, which Sanzhenakov associates with Aristotle, is peculiar rather to Stoic ethics, and not to Aristotle’s one.