caa a22 4500 388110120 CHVBK 20180307125351.0 cr unu---uuuuu 161130s1999 xx s 000 0 eng 10.1017/S0265052500002259 doi S0265052500002259 pii (NATIONALLICENCE)cambridge-10.1017/S0265052500002259 Hunt Lester H. Philosophy, University of Wisconsin-Madison Flourishing Egoism [Elektronische Daten] [Lester H. Hunt] Early in Peter Abelard's Dialogue between a Philosopher, a Jew, and a Christian, the philosopher (that is, the ancient Greek) and the Christian easily come to agreement about what the point of ethics is: "[T]he culmination of true ethics ... is gathered together in this: that it reveal where the ultimate good is and by what road we are to arrive there.” They also agree that, since the enjoyment of this ultimate good "comprises true blessedness,” ethics "far surpasses other teachings in both usefulness and worthiness.” As Abelard understood them, both fundamental elements of his twelfth-century ethical culture — Greek philosophy and Christian religion — held a common view of the nature of ethical inquiry, one that was so obvious to them that his characters do not even state it in a fully explicit way. They take for granted, as we take the ground we stand on, the premise that the most important function of ethical theory is to tell you what sort of life is most desirable, or most worth living. That is, the point of ethics is that it is good for you, that it serves your self-interest. Copyright © Social Philosophy and Policy Foundation 1999 Social Philosophy and Policy Cambridge University Press 16/1(1999), 72-95 0265-0525 16:1<72 1999 16 SOY https://doi.org/10.1017/S0265052500002259 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0265052500002259 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- Hunt Lester H. Philosophy, University of Wisconsin-Madison NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Social Philosophy and Policy Cambridge University Press 16/1(1999), 72-95 0265-0525 16:1<72 1999 16 SOY CC0 http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0 nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-cambridge