Cavell's Perfectionism and Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics

Abstract

This article offers a rereading of the Nicomachean Ethics in light of the moral perfectionism outlined by Stanley Cavell in Conditions Handsome and Unhandsome (1990) and Cities of Words (2004). In the first part, after clarifying possible misunderstandings related to the idea of “perfectionism” and presenting Cavell’s perfectionist or “Emersonian” vision, we analyze his original interpretation of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics in Cities of Words. Specifically, we focus on Cavell’s commentary on Aristotle’s doctrines of happiness and friendship, which highlights the role of the philosophical style Aristotle employs throughout the work. In the second part of the article, we turn more closely to the Nicomachean Ethics itself, examining the nature of this Aristotelian treatise not only in comparison with modern works of ethics but also, and above all, in relation to Aristotle’s other treatises. In doing so, we emphasize two main aspects of the Nicomachean Ethics: the audience for whom the work is intended and its style. We conclude by examining the practical aim of this text and testing Cavell’s reading hypothesis in Cities of Words concerning the final books of the Nicomachean Ethics (8, 9, and 10).