The Role of Philautia in Aristotle’s Ethics

Abstract

This paper discusses the importance of philautia in the Nicomachean Ethics and the Eudemian Ethics. It studies the similarities between the friendship to oneself and the friendship to others, and examines the role of nous for practical and contemplative life. It analyzes also how a virtuous self-lover, in contrast with an incontinent man, desires material and intellectual goods without interfering with others’ ethical development.