Magna Moralia: Critical Edition, Translation, Commentary

The Magna Moralia is one of the three ethical works attributed to Aristotle since antiquity, next to the Eudemian and the Nicomachean Ethics. Unlike the last two works, however, the Magna Moralia has been largely neglected in modern scholarship. It still awaits a critical edition, and, to this date, no state- of-the-art translation into English, German, French, or Italian exists; neither does any philosophically instructive and reliable commentary that examines the Magna Moralia`s ethical theory in detailboth for its own merits and in comparison with the ethical theories advanced in the Eudemian and the Nicomachean Ethics. The need for a re-appreciation of this treatise on the basis of a critical edition of its text and the philosophical assessment of its content is one of the clearest research gaps in ancient philosophy today. The research project aims, first, to establish the first critical edition of the text and, second, to produce an English translation and philosophical commentary. The critical edition will be an important contribution and asset for the students and scholars working in the field of ancient philosophy. Similarly, the translation and commentary are indispensable for students and scholars working on ancient and contemporary ethics. The aim of the project is to publish a critical edition of the text with Oxford Classical Texts, the most prestigious series of critical editions of classical texts of Roman and Greek antiquity, and the translation and commentary in one volume with the equally prestigious Clarendon Aristotle Series. The re-appreciation of the Magna Moralia will greatly improve on both our systematic understanding and the understanding of the development of Aristotles ethics because the Magna Moralia interestingly departs from the ethical doctrines advanced in Aristotle`s other ethical works. Moreover, the Magna Moralia is significant from a more general philosophical point of view: it addresses questions such as the overriding good or the division of goods, which cannot be found elsewhere in the Aristotelian corpus, and which are relevant to contemporary ethics and metaethics. The research project has a philological and a philosophical side and, accordingly, it will employ two distinct but complementary methods. Philological methods will be applied for the constitution of the text, while philosophical methods, such as argument analysis, will be employed for the appreciation of the Magna Moralia`s ethical doctrine.