Annotation
Possibilities of the Will
The idea (concept and word) of ethics emerges through the effort of thinkers in 4th Century Greece to make sense of how man should live. The process of clarifying and ordering values into a coherent and philosophically defensible whole led to crystallisation of the Self which seeks to understand and to structure itself by values it understood and thereby freely accepted. In turn the focus on the Self as endeavour towards perfection and as responsible for its condition homes in on that in our life which lends itself to endeavour and judgement: to that which is in our power, with respect to which we are free and responsible: on will and action.
The idea of the ethical, both in ordinary thought and in philosophical theories is thus inextricably bound up with the idea of the will, of the ‘practical’.
The course will look at the emergence of these ideas and then concentrate on two conceptions of the Will: one bound up with action in the outside world - the Self as agent - the other focused on the perfection of the inner - the Self as subject. Both these conceptions originate in Greece - the first in Aristotle, the 2nd in Stoicism, and we’ll concentrate on these accounts. Since, however, they remain active in our understanding of the Will and with it also of morality, we shall also consider more recent thinkers and theories in the light of them.
If successful, the discussion should not only help us to a better understanding of the dominant moral theories, such as virtue ethics, Kantianism and Utilitarianism, but also clarify our own thinking about the issues themselves.
Lectures start on 8th of October