The Good or the Wild at Aristotle Eudemian Ethics 8.3?

Abstract

The traditional understanding of Aristotle’s Eudemian Ethics 8.3 requires emending the text at least two places, the more important of which changes the manuscripts’ characterization of the Spartans as “wild men” (ἄγριοι) to “good men” (ἀγαθοί). Neither emendation has any manuscript support and if they are rejected, we avoid some apparent philosophical problems. This article examines a new proposal to reject both emendations and argues that, despite the attractions of rejecting them, this chapter’s rhetorical and logical structure shows that they should be accepted. It also suggests a way to defuse the problems to which the emendations apparently give rise.