Skill in Ancient Ethics: The Legacy of China, Greece and Rome

Cover page
Halftitle page
Series page
Title page
Copyright page
Contents
Contributors
Introduction
	1. Skill in Greek and Roman Ethics
	2. Skill in Chinese Ethics
	References
Part One Skill in Plato’s Ethics
1 Socrates: Apprentice at Politics
	Introduction
	1. Is Socrates not the first?
	2. Only Socrates
	3. Being a craft sman and performing the functions of the craft
	4. How Socrates performs the craft of politics
	5. Summary and conclusion
	References
2 The Question is not ‘Can Virtue be Taught?’ but ‘Can Virtue be Learned?’
	1. The Meno : is virtue teachable?
	2. Protagoras (320c–328d)
	3. Protagoras in the Protagoras
	4. Teaching a language vs teaching flute-playing
	5. A defence of Protagoras’ evidence over Socrates
	6. The nature of a skill according to Socrates (and Plato)
	7. Protagoras’ evidence fi ts Socrates’ assumptions regarding the nature of a skill
	8. Conclusion
	References
3 The Contest Between Philosophy and Rhetoric in Plato’s Gorgias
	Introduction
	1. Orders and ends
	2. The architectonic craft
	3. The objects of rhetoric and philosophy
	4. A Gorgian inconsistency
	5. Review of the analogy and disanalogy
	6. Philosopher kings in the Gorgias
	7. The use of rhetoric
	References
4 A Dewian Conception of Skill as Clue to the Analogy Between Craft and Virtue in the Platonic Dialogues
	1. Specifying an art’s end
	2. A false analogy: one skill, one end
	3. Scholarly consensus
	4. A Dewian conception of technê
	5. Applying the Dewian model to the Republic
	6. Conclusions
	References
Part Two Skill in Aristotle’s Ethics
5 Steering Against the Bad: An Aristotelian Account of Virtue as Two-way1
	1. Limiting the powers disanalogy between skill and virtue
	2. Acting knowingly and for the good
	3. Constraining the scope of possibilities for action
	4. The two-wayness of virtue’s rational order
	5. Steering against the bad as a way of getting it right
	6. Conclusion
	References
6 Virtue Cultivation and the Skill of Emotion Regulation
	Introduction
	1. The virtue-skill analogy
	2. The Orektikon and character virtue
	3. Phantasia as non-rational evaluative cognition
	4. Appearance-based emotions
	5. Phantastic habituation and emotion regulation
	References
7 Aristotle on Techne: Two Theses in Search of a Synthesis?
	Introduction
	1. The ‘official’ conception of techne: Cognitive-theoretical emphasis
	2. Techne as practico-experiential
	References
Part Three Skill in Stoic Ethics
8 The Craft sman of Impulse: Chrysippus on Expertise and Moral Development1
	1. Preliminaries: impulse and right reason
	2. Second senses: expertise and concept formation
	3. The craft sman of impulse
	4. Conclusion
	References
9 Being and Becoming Good: Seneca’s Two Moral Conceptions of Ars
	Introduction
	1. Wisdom and craft s or skills
	2. Wisdom as a craft or skill
	3. Becoming good as an ars
	4. The ars of the proficiens and the ars of the wise with regard to the blows of fate
	5. Doing good deeds as an activity of the proficiens and an activity of the wise
	6. Conclusion
	References
Part Four Skill in Confucian Ethics
10 Cultivating Goodness or Manifesting Goodness: Two Interpretations of the Mencius
	1. The question
	2. The Cultivation Model
	3. The Manifestation Model
	3a. The Manifestation-Will Model
	3b. The Manifestation-Mixed Xin Model
	4. Concluding remarks
	References
11 Ritual as a Skill: Ethical Cultivation and the Skill Model in the Xunzi
	1. The skill model of virtue
	2. Xunzi’s ethics and the skill analogy
	3. Ritual learning as skill acquisition
	4. Ritual creation and skills
	References
Part Five Skill and Ethics in the Zhuangzi
12 A Path with No End: Skill and Dao in Mozi and Zhuangzi
	Introduction
	1. Dao, models and skill in the Mozi
	2. Cook Ding on dao versus skill
	3. Proficiency in the patterns
	4. The ends of dao
	5. An ethics of dao and de
	6. Conclusion
	References
13 Skilfulness and Uselessness in the Zhuangzi
	1. A tension in the text
	2. Uselessness and timeliness
	3. Performance and non- attachment
	4. Between attachment and detachment
	5. Uselessness as the basis of usefulness
	6. Uselessness and politics
	7. Conclusion
	References
14 Dao and Agency: What do the Zhuangzi’s Skill Stories Tell Us about Life?
	Introduction, and some remarks on ‘skill’ in the Zhuangzi
	1. Dao and ‘skill’ in the stories
	2. Do you have (a) dao?
	3. Dao, agency and life
	References
Part Six Comparative Perspectives on Skill in Ethics
15 Can One Become Wise by Learning to Catch Cicadas? Analogies between Craft s and Wisdom in Daoism and Stoicism
	Introduction and texts
	1. Why is excellence in skills paradigmatic for the art of living?
	2. The differences in the Stoic and Daoist craft analogies
	3. The common denominator behind the differences
	4. Why the specialist crafts can (or cannot) be conducive to wisdom
	References
16 Gendered Skill: Chinese and Greek Skill-Knowledge Analogies from Archery and Weaving
	1. Chinese archery metaphors
	2. Greek archery metaphors
	3. Chinese analogies from weaving
	4. Greek analogies from weaving
	5. Conclusions
	References
17 The Skilful Wanderer: On the Risks and Rewards of Travel in Plato and Zhuangzi
	Introduction
	1. The a(nti)teliology of wandering
	2. Wandering inside the world
	3. Wandering as transformative: Between ‘inside’ and ‘outside’
	4. The privations of the wanderer in Ancient Greece
	5. Wandering in mere eikos: Sophistry in Phaedrus
	6. Toward an ethics of wandering: Zhuangzi and Plato compared
	Works Cited
Index