Affabilità, verità, eutrapelia. Le virtù della communicatio in alcuni commenti all’Etica nicomachea dei secoli XIII e XIV

Abstract

This article looks at some of the medieval

comments of the 13th and 14th centuries (Albert the

Great, Thomas Aquinas, Gerald Odo, John Buridan) at the

book IV of Nicomachean Ethics where Aristotle discusses

three virtues (affabilitas, veritas, eutrapelia), which govern

the exchange of words and actions. The analysis of

the texts shows how the Aristotelian ethics of the social

word, based on the nature of man and able to identify

specific virtues and specific vices for each of the social

functions of words (transmitting ideas, manifesting and

sharing opinions, giving pleasure and confidence, consoling,

praising or reproaching, entertaining), have been for

medieval commentators an opportunity to reflect on the

role of language within the more general social exchange.

In the final part, the article also questions the interweaving

of the tradition of Aristotelian comments and medieval

literature on the good use of the word.