Aristotelian Ethics in the Early-Modern Period

Introduction

The website Scholasticon provides biographical and bibliographical data for over 2000 Scholastics for the years 1500 to 1800. Some of these, of course, may not have been properly speaking philosophers or Aristotelians and may not have written on ethics or morals. Still, a large proportion of these Scholastics would have been teachers at various colleges and universities, and the collegiate curriculum would inevitably be based on Aristotle and include a course in ethics, along with the usual courses in logic, physics, and metaphysics. This naturally provides a large number of early-modern Aristotelian treatises on ethics to digest. The chapter selects ten fairly representative widely read authors whose works are discussed; in roughly chronological order, they are: the Coimbrans, Eustachius a Sancto Paulo, Scipion Dupleix, Théophraste Bouju, Pierre du Moulin, René de Ceriziers, Pierre Gautruche, Pierre Barbay, Antoine Goudin, and Claude Frassen. Most of these authors were...