Abstract

Plato, Aristotle, and the Hellenistic schools each display an interest in the psychology of ethical subjects and our psychological engagement with sources of value. They ask, amongst other things, through what psychological capacities we engage with sources of value; how our capacities to so engage might best be developed; and how these capacities can be harnessed in such a way that we lead the best human life. This chapter examines some of the ways in which ancient thinkers understood our engagement with sources of value, from intellectual engagement to appetitive desire, from pleasure and pain as responses to value as well as ways of seeing something as valuable, to temporally remote forms of engagement via our capacities for memory and anticipation. It also highlights the particular contributions made by each of the papers and responses in this volume to our understanding of the psychology of value in ancient Greek ethics.