Sadler's Lectures
Sadler's Lectures
Lectures on classic and contemporary philosophical texts and thinkers by Gregory B. Sadler
Plutarch, On Moral Virtue - Mistaken Opinions On The Virtues - Sadler's Lectures
14 minutes Posted Jul 24, 2026 at 3:03 pm.
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This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient philosopher and biographer Plutarch's short work On Moral Virtue
This episode focuses specifically on his discussion of what he takes to be mistaken conceptions of the virtues found in the works of the philosophers Menedemus, Ariston, Zeno, and Chysippus, so that he can contrast his own middle-Platonist perspective against them. There are two main ways he thinks they get matters wrong. The first has to do with the unity and the multiplicity of the virtues. The second has to do with their moral psychology, assuming that there is one ruling part of the soul in which rationality and emotion are both to be found.
You can find the copy of the text I am using for this sequence on Plutarch's On Moral Virtue here - https://amzn.to/3gpyrS3
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