Research Catalog
The fragility of goodness : luck and ethics in Greek tragedy and philosophy / Martha C. Nussbaum.
- Title
- The fragility of goodness : luck and ethics in Greek tragedy and philosophy / Martha C. Nussbaum.
- Author
- Nussbaum, Martha C. (Martha Craven), 1947-
- Publication
- Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2001.
Items in the Library & Off-site
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1 Item
| Status | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Text | Request in advance | BJ192 .N87 2001 | Off-site |
Details
- Description
- xliv, 544 p.; 24 cm.
- Summary
- "This book is a study of ancient views about "moral luck." It examines the fundamental ethical problem that many of the valued constituents of a well-lived life are vulnerable to factors outside a person's control and asks how this affects our appraisal of persons and their lives. The Greeks made a profound contribution to these questions, yet neither the problems nor the Greek views of the them have received the attention they deserve. This book thus recovers a central dimension of Greek thought and addresses major issues in contemporary ethical theory. One of its most original aspects is its interrelated treatment of both literary and philosophical texts." "The Fragility of Goodness has proven to be important reading for philosophers and classicists, and its nontechnical style makes it accessible to any educated person interested in the difficult problems it tackles."--Jacket.
- Subject
- Genre/Form
- Criticism, interpretation, etc.
- History
- Bibliography (note)
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 512-525) and indexes.
- Processing Action (note)
- committed to retain
- Contents
- ch. 1. Luck and ethics -- pt. 1. Tragedy: fragility and ambition -- ch. 2. Aeschylus and practical conflict -- ch. 3. Sophocles' Antigone: conflict, vision, and simplification -- pt. 2. Plato: goodness without fragility? -- ch. 4. The Protagoras: a science of practical reasoning -- Interlude 1: Plato's anti-tragic theater -- ch. 5. The Republic: true value and the standpoint of perfection -- ch. 6. The speech of Alcibiades: a reading of the Symposium -- ch. 7. 'This story isn't true': madness, reason, and recantation in the Phaedrus -- pt. 3. Aristotle: the fragility of the good human life -- ch. 8. Saving Aristotle's appearances -- ch. 9. Rational animals and the explanation of action -- ch. 10. Non-scientific deliberation -- ch. 11. The vulnerability of the good human life: activity and disaster -- ch. 12. The vulnerability of the good human life: relational goods -- Appendix to part 3: human and divine -- Interlude 2: luck and the tragic emotions -- Epilogue: tragedy -- ch. 13. The betrayal of convention: a reading of Euripides' Hecuba.
- ISBN
- 052179126X (hardback)
- 0521794722 (pbk.)
- LCCN
- ^^^00062128^
- OCLC
- 44727859
- SCSB-10428740
- Owning Institutions
- Harvard Library