Periodic Reporting for period 1 - WNV (Who Needs Virtue? The Early Academy and the Way to Happiness)
Reporting period: 2023-11-01 to 2025-10-31
Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project
Who Needs Virtue? (WNV) investigates the early history of virtue ethics by recovering the ethical theories developed in Plato’s first school, the Early Academy (4th century BCE). While modern accounts focus on Plato and Aristotle, the Academy’s first generations—Speusippus, Xenocrates, Polemo, and others—have remained largely invisible. WNV restores their role as active participants in the debate on how virtue (aretē) relates to happiness (eudaimonia), showing that their discussions formed the connective tissue in the development of ancient ethical thought.
The project responds to a clear gap in scholarship: the Early Academy is still treated as either derivative of Plato or merely transitional toward later Platonism. By reassessing its doctrines in their original context, WNV reframes the emergence of ethical theory as a collective and dialectical process, rather than the work of isolated founders.
WNV aims to:
• Identify the main ethical themes developed by Early Academic authors concerning virtue, happiness, and the good life.
• Analyse the philosophical problems that prompted these doctrines and their dialogue with Plato and Aristotle.
• Reconstruct the structure of the debate on virtue and happiness in the fourth century BCE.
• Re-evaluate the significance of Early Academic ethics within their historical and philosophical context.
Integrating philology, history, and argument analysis, the project examines fragmentary evidence with both linguistic precision and conceptual depth, and includes a gender perspective through the study of women’s philosophical education in the Academy.
The project responds to a clear gap in scholarship: the Early Academy is still treated as either derivative of Plato or merely transitional toward later Platonism. By reassessing its doctrines in their original context, WNV reframes the emergence of ethical theory as a collective and dialectical process, rather than the work of isolated founders.
WNV aims to:
• Identify the main ethical themes developed by Early Academic authors concerning virtue, happiness, and the good life.
• Analyse the philosophical problems that prompted these doctrines and their dialogue with Plato and Aristotle.
• Reconstruct the structure of the debate on virtue and happiness in the fourth century BCE.
• Re-evaluate the significance of Early Academic ethics within their historical and philosophical context.
Integrating philology, history, and argument analysis, the project examines fragmentary evidence with both linguistic precision and conceptual depth, and includes a gender perspective through the study of women’s philosophical education in the Academy.
Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far
In line with the objectives of WNV (to reconstruct the ethical theories developed in the Early Academy and reassess their contribution to ethical discussions in the fourth century BCE), the research has concentrated mainly on three complementary strands, each addressing a key aspect of Early Academic philosophy and its ethical implications.
1. Sense perception and its role in ethical education
One line of research concentrated on the Early Academic understanding of sense perception and its role within ethical education (Speusippus, Xenocrates). The research focused specifically on the reconstruction of Speusippus’ concept of “scientific sensation” (ἐπιστημονικὴ αἴσθησις), considered against the background of other theories of perception, such as Xenocrates’. Contrary to the traditional interpretation that subordinates perception to rational logos, the research has shown that Speusippus conceives perception as a trained and habituated capacity capable of autonomous and reliable discrimination in the sensible domain.
Using musical analogies (the disciplined control of the musician’s fingers and the cultivated sensitivity of hearing), Speusippus illustrates how repeated exercise transforms sensory responsiveness into a form of practical discernment. This yields a new understanding of what “knowledge” implies in the Early Academy: ethical formation involves not only rational understanding (epistēmonikos logos) but also the education of the senses, whose attunement grounds the capacity for accurate perception and provides a reliable basis for further discrimination. This model appears to be partly replicated in Xenocrates’ reflections on hearing and sound, where the senses are recognised as possessing an intuitive capacity to distinguish between stimuli that repel or attract us, such discernment being rooted in the underlying ratios that govern their organisation.
2. The nature of knowledge (and its relation to virtue)
A second line of research examined the Early Academic conception of knowledge (epistēmē, sophia), exploring the relation between theoretical understanding and virtue, should the two be identified. One focus within this strand was the investigation of what the Decad represents for Speusippus, using it as a model to understand what constitutes “number,” the only form of stable knowledge that is intuitively recognised by the soul. Rather than offering a metaphysical interpretation of the Decad, this line of research confirms that, as Aristotle reports, Speusippus treats number—and accordingly, the content of stable forms of knowledge—in a rigorously mathematical sense.
In parallel, the research examined Xenocrates’ conception of sophia and phronēsis, with phronēsis appearing in a twofold form (practical and theoretical). Divine sophia designates the science of first causes and intelligible reality, while human phronēsis represents the highest attainable cognitive state within the embodied condition. Xenocrates’ model, more layered than that of Speusippus, seems designed to accommodate various kinds of knowledge, one of which concerns the ultimate cause of the world, which remains unattainable to human beings. The distinction between intelligible and sensible realities provides the ontological framework for his ethical and epistemological hierarchy: divine sophia concerns the knowledge of intelligible causes, while human phronēsis mirrors that order within the sensible realm. By further dividing phronēsis into theoretical and practical parts, Xenocrates opens the possibility that virtue may be realised at different cognitive levels—fully by philosophers, whose action is guided by the knowledge of causes, and analogically by citizens, whose conduct, though less reflective, remains grounded in a form of genuine knowledge. This structure allows him to reinterpret the Platonic identification of virtue with knowledge in a more inclusive direction, while still leaving open whether practical knowledge itself may depend on, or be shaped by, the soul’s capacity to grasp and discriminate among sensible beings.
3. Conditions for happiness: goods, virtue, and their interaction
A third strand focused on the Early Academic classification of goods.
One central issue has been the interpretation of Crantor’s taxonomy of goods. While his classification of wealth, pleasure, health, and virtue in ascending order is often read as consistent with the Hellenistic tripartition of goods, closer inspection shows that his hierarchy reflects ascending necessity: each higher good provides value and stability to the one below. Wealth is useful insofar as it enables the enjoyment of pleasure; pleasure is not advantageous without health; and health, though valuable, remains incomplete without the guidance of virtue. Virtue thus guarantees the secure possession (ktēsis) of the other goods, integrating and perfecting them.
This interpretation repositions Crantor’s ethics within the Academic–Peripatetic dialogue, highlighting its structural sophistication and its continuity with later Hellenistic thought. It also contributes to a more precise understanding of how the Early Academy approached the interdependence between virtue and external conditions, enriching the conceptual history of eudaimonia as both rational and embodied well-being.
Taken together, these three strands illuminate central ethical themes discussed in the Early Academy. They show that debates on virtue were deeply entwined with discussions of psychology and knowledge, and that these, in turn, were layered to account for processes involving perception, intellectual training, and the conditions of happiness. This integrated approach suggests that Early Academic ethics sought to explain moral formation as a gradual process linking sensory experience, cognitive refinement, and the achievement of a stable and flourishing life.
1. Sense perception and its role in ethical education
One line of research concentrated on the Early Academic understanding of sense perception and its role within ethical education (Speusippus, Xenocrates). The research focused specifically on the reconstruction of Speusippus’ concept of “scientific sensation” (ἐπιστημονικὴ αἴσθησις), considered against the background of other theories of perception, such as Xenocrates’. Contrary to the traditional interpretation that subordinates perception to rational logos, the research has shown that Speusippus conceives perception as a trained and habituated capacity capable of autonomous and reliable discrimination in the sensible domain.
Using musical analogies (the disciplined control of the musician’s fingers and the cultivated sensitivity of hearing), Speusippus illustrates how repeated exercise transforms sensory responsiveness into a form of practical discernment. This yields a new understanding of what “knowledge” implies in the Early Academy: ethical formation involves not only rational understanding (epistēmonikos logos) but also the education of the senses, whose attunement grounds the capacity for accurate perception and provides a reliable basis for further discrimination. This model appears to be partly replicated in Xenocrates’ reflections on hearing and sound, where the senses are recognised as possessing an intuitive capacity to distinguish between stimuli that repel or attract us, such discernment being rooted in the underlying ratios that govern their organisation.
2. The nature of knowledge (and its relation to virtue)
A second line of research examined the Early Academic conception of knowledge (epistēmē, sophia), exploring the relation between theoretical understanding and virtue, should the two be identified. One focus within this strand was the investigation of what the Decad represents for Speusippus, using it as a model to understand what constitutes “number,” the only form of stable knowledge that is intuitively recognised by the soul. Rather than offering a metaphysical interpretation of the Decad, this line of research confirms that, as Aristotle reports, Speusippus treats number—and accordingly, the content of stable forms of knowledge—in a rigorously mathematical sense.
In parallel, the research examined Xenocrates’ conception of sophia and phronēsis, with phronēsis appearing in a twofold form (practical and theoretical). Divine sophia designates the science of first causes and intelligible reality, while human phronēsis represents the highest attainable cognitive state within the embodied condition. Xenocrates’ model, more layered than that of Speusippus, seems designed to accommodate various kinds of knowledge, one of which concerns the ultimate cause of the world, which remains unattainable to human beings. The distinction between intelligible and sensible realities provides the ontological framework for his ethical and epistemological hierarchy: divine sophia concerns the knowledge of intelligible causes, while human phronēsis mirrors that order within the sensible realm. By further dividing phronēsis into theoretical and practical parts, Xenocrates opens the possibility that virtue may be realised at different cognitive levels—fully by philosophers, whose action is guided by the knowledge of causes, and analogically by citizens, whose conduct, though less reflective, remains grounded in a form of genuine knowledge. This structure allows him to reinterpret the Platonic identification of virtue with knowledge in a more inclusive direction, while still leaving open whether practical knowledge itself may depend on, or be shaped by, the soul’s capacity to grasp and discriminate among sensible beings.
3. Conditions for happiness: goods, virtue, and their interaction
A third strand focused on the Early Academic classification of goods.
One central issue has been the interpretation of Crantor’s taxonomy of goods. While his classification of wealth, pleasure, health, and virtue in ascending order is often read as consistent with the Hellenistic tripartition of goods, closer inspection shows that his hierarchy reflects ascending necessity: each higher good provides value and stability to the one below. Wealth is useful insofar as it enables the enjoyment of pleasure; pleasure is not advantageous without health; and health, though valuable, remains incomplete without the guidance of virtue. Virtue thus guarantees the secure possession (ktēsis) of the other goods, integrating and perfecting them.
This interpretation repositions Crantor’s ethics within the Academic–Peripatetic dialogue, highlighting its structural sophistication and its continuity with later Hellenistic thought. It also contributes to a more precise understanding of how the Early Academy approached the interdependence between virtue and external conditions, enriching the conceptual history of eudaimonia as both rational and embodied well-being.
Taken together, these three strands illuminate central ethical themes discussed in the Early Academy. They show that debates on virtue were deeply entwined with discussions of psychology and knowledge, and that these, in turn, were layered to account for processes involving perception, intellectual training, and the conditions of happiness. This integrated approach suggests that Early Academic ethics sought to explain moral formation as a gradual process linking sensory experience, cognitive refinement, and the achievement of a stable and flourishing life.
Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)
The project has produced new results that reshape our understanding of Early Academic ethics and its broader legacy. Together, the three strands of research have illuminated a network of interconnected discussions within the Early Academy, showing how debates on virtue engaged with questions of perception, knowledge, and the role of external goods (including health and material integrity) in the attainment of happiness.
By showing that the Early Academy discussed the epistemic role of trained sense-perception, the research has revealed a neglected strand of ancient thought in which the education of the senses forms part of ethical self-cultivation, and in many ways its precondition. The analysis of the Early Academic conception of knowledge (epistēmē, sophia) has clarified how different epistemological frameworks were layered and adapted to accommodate various kinds of knowledge, and how human beings could ground their cognitive and moral capacities within this structure. Finally, the study of the Early Academic classification of goods has refined our understanding of how the Academy linked virtue and external goods—such as health and material well-being—showing how these were integrated into a coherent reflection on the conditions of happiness.
Taken together, these results offer a richer and more nuanced picture of Early Academic ethics as a constellation of interrelated inquiries, in which sensory training, intellectual cultivation, and practical life were understood as mutually reinforcing aspects of moral formation.
The results have already generated impact within the field through invited lectures, forthcoming publications, and inclusion in collective volumes. The next step is to consolidate these findings into a book-length study and to extend the discussion to the Peripatetic tradition, which remains underexplored in current reconstructions of Early Academic debates. These developments will ensure the long-term integration, interdisciplinary relevance, and international visibility of the project’s results.
By showing that the Early Academy discussed the epistemic role of trained sense-perception, the research has revealed a neglected strand of ancient thought in which the education of the senses forms part of ethical self-cultivation, and in many ways its precondition. The analysis of the Early Academic conception of knowledge (epistēmē, sophia) has clarified how different epistemological frameworks were layered and adapted to accommodate various kinds of knowledge, and how human beings could ground their cognitive and moral capacities within this structure. Finally, the study of the Early Academic classification of goods has refined our understanding of how the Academy linked virtue and external goods—such as health and material well-being—showing how these were integrated into a coherent reflection on the conditions of happiness.
Taken together, these results offer a richer and more nuanced picture of Early Academic ethics as a constellation of interrelated inquiries, in which sensory training, intellectual cultivation, and practical life were understood as mutually reinforcing aspects of moral formation.
The results have already generated impact within the field through invited lectures, forthcoming publications, and inclusion in collective volumes. The next step is to consolidate these findings into a book-length study and to extend the discussion to the Peripatetic tradition, which remains underexplored in current reconstructions of Early Academic debates. These developments will ensure the long-term integration, interdisciplinary relevance, and international visibility of the project’s results.