ABSTRACT
IS Aristotle inconsistent in the different things he says about https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203101667/71037d88-9caa-4ef5-aca9-626f0a80e79b/content/figp143_01_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>, mostly translated “choice”, in the different parts of the Ethics? The following seems to be a striking inconsistency. In Book III (113a 4) he says that what is “decided by deliberation” is chosen https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203101667/71037d88-9caa-4ef5-aca9-626f0a80e79b/content/figp143_02_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>, but he also often insists that the uncontrolled man, the https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203101667/71037d88-9caa-4ef5-aca9-626f0a80e79b/content/figp143_03_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>, does not choose to do what he does; that is to say, what he does in doing the kind of thing that he disapproves of, is not what Aristotle will call exercising choice; the uncontrolled man does not act from choice, https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203101667/71037d88-9caa-4ef5-aca9-626f0a80e79b/content/figp143_04_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203101667/71037d88-9caa-4ef5-aca9-626f0a80e79b/content/figp143_05_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>, or choosing, https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203101667/71037d88-9caa-4ef5-aca9-626f0a80e79b/content/figp143_06_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>. However, in Book VI (1142b 18) he mentions the possibility of a calculating uncontrolled man who will get what he arrived at by calculation, https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203101667/71037d88-9caa-4ef5-aca9-626f0a80e79b/content/figp143_07_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203101667/71037d88-9caa-4ef5-aca9-626f0a80e79b/content/figp143_08_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>, and so will have deliberated correctly: https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203101667/71037d88-9caa-4ef5-aca9-626f0a80e79b/content/figp143_09_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203101667/71037d88-9caa-4ef5-aca9-626f0a80e79b/content/figp143_10_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>. Thus we have the three theses: (a) choice is what is determined by deliberation; (b) what the uncontrolled man does qua uncontrolled, he does not choose to do; (c) the uncontrolled man, even when acting against his convictions, does on occasion determine what to do by deliberation.
