Ueli Zahnd: Augustinian theology in philosophical ethics: John Mair's use of Augustine in his commentary on the Nicomachean Ethics

As one of the last books he gave into print, John Mair published in 1530 a huge commentary on Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. Concerned with the challenges of his time – the discovery of the New World, the humanist critique of scholasticism, and the Reformation – he had delved into the writing of this commentary. He thought to be able to reassure the traditional world view and approaches when arguing for an almost perfect concordance of Aristotle, the champion of natural reason, and the traditional catholic faith. In doing so, an important resource to test Aristotle’s orthodoxy was Augustine, so that the commentary became an interesting conglomerate of philosophical and Patristic sources. In my paper, I'll analyze this use of Augustine in the context of philosophical ethics, examining also the question to what extent this might have fostered the reception of Augustine among Mair’s philosophical students, to which possibly pertained John Calvin.