social ethics questions

5/4/22, 1:18 AM Reading Assignment Questions: Week 2

https://seattleu.instructure.com/courses/1603225/assignments/7016118?module_item_id=17540430 1/1

Reading Assignment Questions: Week 2

Due Apr 9 by 11:59pm Points 2 Submitting a text entry box or a file upload

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After reading Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics and Politics along with my lecture notes, and then Martha Nussbaum’s article, “Aristotelian Social Democracy”, provide substantive answers--with references to the texts--to the following questions. Remember to look over the Reading Assignment Rubric before answering the questions:

1. In the Nicomachean Ethics how does Aristotle define the ultimate good of Happiness and how does he distinguish it from 3 ways most people view happiness? (be sure to use the lecture notes as an aid in answering these questions about Aristotle's thought)

2. In Politics, what makes us distinctively human animals? More specifically, what does Aristotle mean when he calls humans by nature “political animals”? What is the significance of comparing and contrasting with bees?

3. In his Politics what are the two types of “arts of acquisition” (i.e. economic activity – see lecture notes) and how are they linked to the different value systems of exchange-value or use-value?

4. Speaking of the difference between exchange-value and use-value, what does Aristotle mean by “false wealth” and “real wealth” and why is this distinction important for practicing virtue ethics?

5. According to Martha Nussbaum how does Aristotle’s understanding of the “common meals” in Athens highlight the priority of the common good, and how does this guide the equitable distribution of property?

6. According to Nussbaum what is the guiding question for the Aristotelian approach to the good that distinguishes it from other approaches (both the utilitarian approach and the Rawlsian/Kantian liberal approach as she mentions)? Explain her example of how it more deeply treats the issue of gender inequality amongst Bangladeshi women.

7. Within Nussbaum’s list of “Basic Human Functional Capabilities” explain why she holds the capability for “practical reason” as high as she does and why education is so important for such.