윤리학의 학적 성격 -알베르투스의 전기- 『윤리학 주해』(Super Ethica)의 서문 분석- = On Albert’s View on Ethics as a Scientific Discipline Shown in the Prolog of His Super Ethica

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

It was not until the complete translation of the Nicomachean Ethics by Robert Grosseteste that the Latin world became acquainted with Aristotle’s ethics, and it was Albert the Great who became a pioneer in the development of ethics in the Medieval Ages with his commentary on Ethics. Albert’s interpretation of Aristotle’s theories of moral happiness and contemplative happiness unifies them, and this reading is the basis for establishing the autonomy of Aristotelian ethics as science. Having demonstrated that scientific knowledge of human moral behavior is possible, Albert goes on to identify the scientific character of ethics by situating it within three formal categories. First, the subject-matter of ethics are human behavior and happiness, which Albert distinguishes as the final intention of ethics and common subject, respectively, and establishes a unity of subject-matter by establishing an order between them. Second, ethics is divided into political science and economics according to the kind of good, yet Albert believes that these two disciplines actually form a single ethical system because they have a relation of principle or cause and effects to ethics. Third, ethics is bound to define its purpose and research method within the dichotomy of “ethica docens” and “ethica utens”, but Albert harmonizes moral practice and ethics by understanding these two as corresponding to the relationship between the subject-matters of ethical study, that is, the relationship between the final intention and the common subject. Authorizing Aristotelian ethics as an independent science, Albert opens up a possibility of discussing virtue, ethics in general, and happiness in a Christian-theological context. This paper analyzes Albert’s views on the disciplinary form of ethics by examining the preface to his First Commentary on the Nicomachean Ethics (Super Ethica).