What Is Aristotelian Prohairesis? - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture, discussing the nature of "moral choice" or "deliberate choice" in Aristotle's moral theory, was delivered during the 7th Felician Ethics Conference at Felician College (Rutherford, NJ). In it, I discuss what I label the "Standard Interpretation" of prohairesis, which ties it explicitly to deliberation about means towards ends -- an interpretation stemming from focusing on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics book 3 discussion of prohairesis. I then discuss a number of passages from across Aristotle's body of work which provide a broader context for understanding what prohairesis could be. I conclude by arguing that the Standard Interpretation, while correct in what it asserts, is far too restrictive to account for these other passages, so that prohairesis must be understood as a complex and more fundamental concept in Aristotelian moral theory.