Day
17: Reason, Responsibility, and the Good Life
Review/Questions
Choice and Responsibility
Intellectual Virtue
What is Happiness?
Think about strengths and weaknesses of Aristotles position; read the
Judith Thomson paper for Day 19
Voluntariness
According to Aristotle, what is it for an act to be voluntary? What is
it for an act to be involuntary?
Is voluntariness the same thing as choice?
Choice and
Responsibility
What is choice?
rational voluntariness
deliberate or deliberated
voluntariness about the means
deliberate desire pertaining to
options within our power
the outcome of rational
deliberation
Why does Aristotle say we can deliberate about and choose the means, but
not the ends, of actions?
What is the relationship between choice and responsibility? What
motivates this?
Intellectual Virtue
Why should we understand the nature of intellectual virtue?
What are the two parts of the rational soul?
How is each part characterized?
What is practical wisdom? Of which type of reason is it a virtue? What
is the range of possible concerns for practical wisdom?
What are some other intellectual virtues?
What is Happiness?
According to Aristotle, how are exertion and amusement related to one
another?
According to Aristotle, what are the two types of life that are worth
living? Why?
According to Aristotle, which life is the highest (or best life to
live)? Why?