Accusation of dependence of Tahdhib al-Akhlaq; A comparative review of the concept of courage in Aristotle's ethics and Miskawayh al-Razi

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Mohammadmahdi Valizadeh 1
Mohsen Jahed 2
1 PhD student of Islamic ethics of Shahid Beheshti University and fourth level student of Qom seminary
2 Associate Professor of Wisdom and Kalam, Faculty of Theology and Religions, Shahid Beheshti University, Iran
10.30470/phm.2023.1989671.2369
Abstract
Miskawayh



Courage has long been considered one of the most important moral virtues in various religions and has been given much attention in Islamic concepts. As two Greek and Muslim moral thinkers, Aristotle and Miskawayh Razi have tried to conceptualize and demarcate this virtue. The great similarity of the content of these two prominent virtue theorists in the discussion of courage raises the question of what is the difference between their contributions and to what extent was Miskawayh influenced by Aristotle's text? The leading research tried to extract the micro-components of courage from the point of view of each of them with the method of analyzing the content of Aristotle's Nicomachean ethics and Tahzib al-Akhlaq of Miskawayh. In this regard, he found 32 components in six dimensions, of which 13 are common and 11 are specific to Aristotle. On the other hand, 8 components are one of the merits of Miskawayh, which shows that in his original book, in addition to transferring Greek ethics to Islamic-Arabic literature, he also played the role of selecting, explaining, completing and innovating, therefore, he found a leading position among late moralists. And the accusation of his affiliation and translation is not justified.

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