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Aristotle of Stagira (384 - 322 BC) (according to Dante Alighieri "The Master of those who know") stretches his hand. He holds a copy of his Nichomachean Ethics -, School of Athens, Raphael
The Nicomachean Ethics is one of Aristotle's great works and discusses virtues. The ten books which comprise it are based on notes from his lectures at the Lyceum and were either edited by or dedicated to Aristotle's son, Nicomachus.
In Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle focuses on the importance of continually behaving virtuously and developing virtue rather than committing specific good actions. This can be opposed to Kantian ethics, in which the primary focus is on individual action. Nicomachean Ethics emphasizes the importance of context to ethical behavior – what might be right in one situation might be wrong in another. Aristotle believed that happiness is the end of life and that as long as a person is striving for goodness, good deeds will result from that struggle, making the person virtuous and therefore happy.
Three Ethical Treatises
We have three editions of Aristotle's ethical theory which survive today:
the most popular Nicomachean Ethics
the Eudemian Ethics
the Magnus Moralia
Each of these books are in fact collections of Aristotle's lecture notes, each book possibly containing several different lecture courses which can be sparse and difficult to read.
It is thought that the Eudemian Ethics represents Aristotle's early ethical theory, and the Nicomachean Ethics appears to build upon its counterpart. Despite the fact the Eudemian Ethics been called 'less mature' by some critics (although it is important to note that in recent years, certain critics, such as Kenny (1978) have termed the Eudemian Ethics the more mature, and latter book), three books from this treatise (Books IV-VI) also appear in the Nicomachean Ethics as Books V-VII.
Scholars assume that the Nicomachean Ethics and the Eudemian Ethics were either edited by or dedicated to Aristotle's son and pupil Nicomachus, and his disciple Eudemus respectively. These must remain assumptions, however, since no information about the collections' names is contained in the works.
A fourth treatise which is often cited as the sequel to the Ethics is Aristotle's Politics. As Aristotle states in the Ethics that the good of the individual is subordinate to the good of the city-state, or 'polis', this is no surprise.
Overview
General Ethics
Book 1: The Study of the Good
Nic.+Eth.1094a (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Aristot.+Nic.+Eth.+1094a) at PP
Goal-directed ethics
Aristotle's ethics is often called teleological or goal-directed. According to Aristotle, every thing has a purpose or end. A knife, for example, has the purpose of cutting things. A good knife is good at cutting things, and therefore knives should be sharp. Similarly, people have a purpose. People should do things that help them fulfill that purpose or end: things that are for their good.
Character-centered ethics
People who do such things well and consistently are good people. Each action is not considered as an isolated act (as is often done in other ethical systems), but in relation to this end. This attitude toward ethics is called virtue ethics or character-centered ethics: each person's actions should make that person better and build a better character. Others will recognize you as courageous (Aristotle assumed) if you generally perform courageous acts when the chance arises. The Nicomachean Ethics is considered to be one of the major instances of such virtue ethics.
Of course, this leaves the important question of what a human's purpose actually is.
The essence and function of being human
Aristotle defined the function of being human when he stated, “Now we take the human’s function to be a certain kind of life, and take this life to be the soul’s activity and actions that express reason. Hence the excellent man’s function is to do this finely and well. Each function is completed well when its completion expresses the proper virtue. Therefore the human good turns out to be the soul’s activity that expresses virtue.”- 1098a 5-10 (Book I, Ch. 7) This does not imply that every human being should aspire to "be great", but rather each human life should express the truth of that internal soul's activity.
A person who lives according to these virtues will, Aristotle says, become happier. Happiness, well-being or flourishing (Greek: εὐδαιμονία eudaimonia) is the ultimate goal of life, and most people recognize this. When asked "Why are you doing this?" and then "Well, why are you doing that?" in response to each answer, most people will eventually stop at "in order to be happy" or "to feel better" or some such equivalent.
People try to achieve happiness through three ways: pleasure, honor, and expression of reason. Making money is a fourth way, but it happens through necessity and is not specifically for achieving happiness in itself; in order to be happy a person needs resources first.
Virtue
Arete: traditional Greek virtues
“Virtue (arete) then is a settled disposition of the mind determining the choice of actions and emotions, consisting essentially in the observance of the mean relative to us, this being determined by principle, that is, as the prudent man would determine it.” Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, II vi 15, translated H. Rackham (1934: Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press)
In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle tries to address the traditional Greek virtues (Greek: αρετη arete) of his time, in large part accepting contemporary virtues and explaining them. It is important to recognize that these virtues are not always the same as modern or Christian virtues—Aristotle views pride or magnificence (rather than humility) as a virtue, for example. Arete may also be translated as excellence, and for Aristotle (as opposed to some earlier Greek philosophers) arete is limited to things which humans may excel at, but that animals, plants and inanimate objects cannot. Height and strength may be excellent physical attributes, but they are not limited to people and so Aristotle does not consider such things as virtues. He divides the virtues into intellectual and moral virtues.
To reiterate: each of these virtues are things that people can acquire by practice over time. A person becomes more courageous by continually choosing courageous acts over cowardly or foolhardy ones, for example.
Book 2: Moral Virtue
Nic.+Eth.1103a (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Aristot.+Nic.+Eth.+1103a) at PP
Moral virtues are close to what we would call virtues today. Aristotle lists the following as moral virtues: courage, temperance (moderation), liberality (moderation in giving and taking money), magnificence (correctly dealing with great wealth or power), pride (claiming what is due to you), gentleness (moderation with respect to anger), agreeableness, truthfulness, wittiness and justice.
The Golden Mean
Nic.+Eth.1105b (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Aristot.+Nic.+Eth.+1105b) at PP
In order to be happy a person must find the mean between two extremes. A courageous person is the mean between the extremes of cowardice and foolhardiness. A soldier who is a coward will not fight in a war even though they have more than enough resources to defeat the enemy quite easily, while the foolhardy soldier will fight in a war when they are very poorly equipped. Aristotle defined the mean when he stated, “But though our present account is of this nature we must give what help we can. First, then, let us consider this, that it is the nature of such things to be destroyed by defect and excess, as we see in the case of strength and of health (for to gain light on things imperceptible we must use the evidence of sensible things); both excessive and defective exercise destroys the strength, and similarly drink or food which is above or below a certain amount destroys the health, while that which is proportionate both produces and increases and preserves it. So too is it, then, in the case of temperance and courage and the other virtues. For the man who flies from and fears everything and does not stand his ground against anything becomes a coward, and the man who fears nothing at all but goes to meet every danger becomes rash; and similarly the man who indulges in every pleasure and abstains from none becomes self-indulgent, while the man who shuns every pleasure, as boors do, becomes in a way insensible; temperance and courage, then, are destroyed by excess and defect, and preserved by the mean.
The excellent archer will find the mean between the two extremes when trying to hit the target, and he will not aim with force in excess like Machiavelli states to do in his book the, Prince, “Let him act like the clever archers who, designing to hit the mark which yet appears too far distant, and knowing the limits to which the strength of their bow attains, take aim much higher than the mark, not to reach by their strength or arrow to so great a height, but to be able with the aid of so high an aim to hit the mark they wish to reach.” A follower of Aristotle will seek to find the mean in every action whether it deals with pleasure, honor, or expression of reason because they will understand that virtue is a mean. In order to seek the good they must also use reason as a guide to seek the virtue/mean.
Explanation with examples from virtues of character
As stated in the inscription at the temple at the Oracle at Delphi, a person should do nothing to excess. The inscription should have also included the words, find the mean. Temperance is the virtue that is the mean in order to control emotions, courage is the mean when seeking honor, and wisdom is the mean when seeking knowledge.
A general must seek to find courage the mean between cowardice and foolhardiness, in order to gain honor. A person who seeks pleasure must find the mean between becoming a drunkard and not drinking at all. A person who seeks pleasure through eating must find the mean between being a glutton and being anorexic. A person who seeks pleasure through sex must find the mean between abstinence and nymphomania. A person who seek honor through knowledge must find the mean between ignorance and seeking knowledge to excess (Socrates did not listen to this). Plato stated that the mean between ignorance and wisdom was “right opinion.”
Book 3: Courage and Temperance
Nic.+Eth.1109b (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Aristot.+Nic.+Eth.+1109b) at PP
Chapters 1-5: The Will
Aristotle divides actions into three categories: voluntary, involuntary (unwilling), and nonvoluntary actions. "Now, praise or blame is given only to what is voluntary; that which is involuntary receives pardon, and sometimes even pity." (Book III Ch 1) Virtues are based on voluntary actions.
Aristotle makes a subtle distinction between involuntary and nonvoluntary actions thus: "A man who has acted through ignorance, then, if he is sorry afterwards, is held to have done the deed involuntarily or unwillingly; if he is not sorry afterwards we may say (to mark the distinction) he did the deed 'not-voluntarily;' for, as the case is different, it is better to have a distinct name." (Book III Ch 1) This ignorance is ignorance of the facts of the situation, not ignorance of what is fitting, which cannot be excused.
Aristotle doesn't fully develop the concept of free will, and (following Socrates and Plato) does not mention the possibility of deliberate wrong-doing, only that "It is not about the ends, but about the means that we deliberate" (Book III Ch 3) and "choice or purpose implies calculation and reasoning" (Book III Ch 2).
Chapters 6-12: Courage, Temperance and Profligacy
Book 4: Other Virtues
Nic.+Eth.1119b (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Aristot.+Nic.+Eth.+1119b) at PP
Aristotle describes other virtues, including liberality, magnanimity, amiability, sincerity, wit, and modesty.
Ethics within Society
Aristotle's emphasis on the growth of character is centered on the individual, but not to the exclusion of a person's relationships with others or participation in society. In fact, large portions of the Nicomachean Ethics discuss friendship, justice and politics.
Book 5: Justice
Nic.+Eth.1129a (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Aristot.+Nic.+Eth.+1129a) at PP
Aristotle defines justice as a virtue by using the golden mean, saying that justice is the mean between committing injustice and suffering from it. Since he admits that suffering from injustice is involuntary, this definition is generally regarded as being "asserted merely in order to bring justice into line with other virtues already discussed" (Coppleston, A History of Philosophy, Vol I: Greece and Rome, p.342), and therefore is not a useful guide to virtuous action.
Aristotle also distinguishes between distributive and retributatory justice. Retributive justice, or punishment for things done wrong, is similar to criminal courts. Distributive justice is conceptually similar to civil courts and awarding financial compensation.
People should not be held accountable for involuntary actions, ie: things they were forced to do, or that they did in ignorance of the facts, which may be called mistakes or mishaps. Voluntary unjust actions can be divided according to whether they were premeditated or not. Crimes done due to emotion rather than reason (ex: sudden anger) are acts of injustice, but the person who does things in the heat of the moment should not be regarded as a wicked or unjust person. Premeditated unjust actions can only be done by unjust or wicked people, Aristotle thought. This may seem fairly sensible, but is an important departure from Socrates and Plato who held that people never did things which they realized were wrong, and that all evil was caused solely by ignorance.
Book 6: Intellectual Virtue
Nic.+Eth.1138b (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Aristot.+Nic.+Eth.+1138b) at PP
Aristotle enumerates five intellectual virtues: Knowledge, art, prudence, intuition, and wisdom. Most of these would not be called virtues today, but they are important because they allow us to recognize the golden mean in a particular situation and then to behave according to it. Prudence or phronesis means behaving according to the golden mean generally, and is used to find the moral virtues, each of which are the golden mean between two imprudent behaviors or vices.
Book 7: Evil and Pleasure
Nic.+Eth.1145a (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Aristot.+Nic.+Eth.+1145a) at PP
Chapters 1-10: Evil
Aristotle divides evil into three categories: vice, incontinence, and brutishness
Chapters 11-14: Pleasure (Part 1)
Books 8 and 9: Friendship
Nic.+Eth.1155a (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Aristot.+Nic.+Eth.+1155a) at PP
Aristotle argues that friends can be viewed as second selves. Just as virtuous behavior improves oneself, friends can improve each other--this is the importance of friendship, and the reason it may be regarded as a type of virtue. The success or failure of a friend can be like one’s own success or failure. Aristotle divides friendships into three types, based on the motive for forming them: friendships of utility, friendships of pleasure and friendships of the good.
Friendships of utility are relationships formed without regard to the other person at all. Buying merchandise, for example, may require meeting another person but usually needs only a very shallow relationship between the buyer and seller. In modern English, people in such a relationship would not even be called friends, but acquaintances (if they even remembered each other afterwards). The only reason these people are communicating is in order to buy or sell things, which is not a bad thing, but as soon as that motivation is gone, so does the relationship between the two people unless another motivation is found.
At the next level, friendships of pleasure are based on pure delight in the company of other people. People who drink together, or share a hobby may have such friendships. However, these friends may also part--in this case if they no longer enjoy the shared activity, or can no longer participate in it together.
Friendships of the good are ones where both friends enjoy each other's characters. As long as both friends keep similar characters, the relationship will endure since the motive behind it is care for the friend. This is the highest level of relationship, and in modern English might be called true friendship.
Book 10: Pleasure and Politics
Nic.+Eth.1172a (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Aristot.+Nic.+Eth.+1172a) at PP
Chapters 1-5: Pleasure (Part 2)
Chapters 6-9: Politics
“For though this good is the same for the individual and the state, yet the good of the state seems a grander and more perfect thing both to attain and to secure; and glad as one would be to do this service for a single individual, to do it for a people and for a number of states is nobler and more divine.” Nicomachean Ethics, Book I Ch ii, translated F.H. Peters (1893: Oxford). Here Aristotle describes the relationationship between ethics and politics, saying that politics is essentially ethics on a larger scale.
Indeed, Aristotle believes that politics should be a noble pursuit to which ethics is an introduction. The last chapter of the Nicomachean Ethics states “Since then our predecessors have left this matter of legislation uninvestigated, it will perhaps be better ourselves to inquire into it, and indeed into the whole question of the management of a state, in order that our philosophy of human life may be completed to the best of our power.” Nicomachean Ethics, Book X Ch ix, translated F.H. Peters (1893: Oxford). He continues his discussion in the Politics.
Important quotes
Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and pursuit, is thought to aim at some good; and for this reason the good has rightly been declared to be that at which all things aim. - 1094a (Book I, Ch. 1)
Links
Aristotle's Ethics at Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-ethics/)
Lecture on Aristotle's Nicomachaean Ethics (http://www.mala.bc.ca/~johnstoi/introser/aristot.htm) A very complete analysis of Nicomachean Ethics.
Nicomachean Ethics Sparknote (http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/ethics/) A study guide for Nicomachean Ethics.
Nicomachean Ethics, trans. by Harris Rackham (HTML at Perseus) (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Aristot.+Nic.+Eth.+) with Bekker numbers.
References
Nichomachean Ethics, translated by Terence Irwin (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1985)
Nicomachean Ethics: Aristotle with an introduction by Hye-Kyung Kim, translated by F.H. Peters in Oxford, 1893. (Barnes & Noble, 2004)
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