Critolaus and the parts of eudaimonia

Ancient critics accused Critolaus of inconsistency for maintaining the primacy of virtue while including other kinds of good in eudaimonia. The charge has been neatly framed as a fundamental dilemma for Aristotelian eudaimonism in a trio of claims: 1) eudaimonia is controlled by virtuous activity; 2) bodily and external goods are part of eudaimonia; 3) but those goods are themselves neither activity nor parts of activity. Ancient sources clearly attribute versions of the first two claims to Critolaus and criticize his position on the basis of the third claim. This chapter argues instead that his position is best understood as defusing the dilemma by accepting only the first disjunct of the third claim and denying its second disjunct. Critolaus maintained the consistency of the first two legs of the trio by providing a model for understanding how bodily and external goods are parts of the virtuous activity that constitutes eudaimonia.