Miskawayh

Abstract

Abu Ali Miskawayh (d. 1030) is among the most significant and influential writers of philosophical ethics in the medieval Islamic world. In his bookThe Refinement of Characteras well as in a number of smaller ethical treatises, he reports on, discusses, and reworks ancient Greek ethical doctrines, thus presenting his own synthesis of Platonic and Aristotelian ethical thought. He also adapts these ideas for his own contemporary social and religious context. Though covering a range of topics (like the good, happiness, or pleasure), he focuses in particular on virtues and the development of character. His work encompasses detailed discussions of the subdivisions of the cardinal virtues (especially of justice), of the path to acquiring a virtuous character, of the concept and status of pleasure, and of virtues and vices as health and diseases of the soul.