Work · Aristotle
Nicomachean Ethics
c.4th c. BCE · Ten books
What is the good life, and how do you actually become good? Flourishing as the goal, virtue as a trained habit, the mean between extremes, and contemplation at the summit.
10
Books
4th c. BCE
Written
The good life
On
The golden mean
Virtue is the mean between two vices, one of too little and one of too much, fixed by reason in the particular case. It is not a mathematical midpoint or “moderation in all things”: some acts (murder, betrayal) have no virtuous amount at all.
The shape of the argument
Book I
The human good is eudaimonia (flourishing), and the function argument: our good is the soul’s activity in line with virtue.
Books II–V
The virtues of character: virtue as trained habit, the doctrine of the mean, responsibility, and justice.
Book VI
The virtues of the intellect, above all practical wisdom (phronesis) and theoretical wisdom (sophia).
Book VII
Weakness of will (akrasia): how we know the better and still do the worse. And pleasure.
Books VIII–IX
The long treatment of friendship: of use, of pleasure, and of character, where the friend is “another self.”
Book X
Pleasure again, and the verdict: the contemplative life is the highest happiness. Then it hands off to the Politics.
The cast
Eudaimonia — flourishing — the highest good, the life that lacks nothing
The golden mean — virtue as the reasoned middle between too little and too much
Habit — we become good by doing good acts; character is trained, not taught
Phronesis — practical wisdom — knowing the right thing to do in the particular case
Friendship — two of the ten books — the true friend as “another self”
The contemplative life — theoria — the highest happiness, the verdict of Book X
The famous bits
The function argumentBook I
What is a human being FOR? Our good is the soul’s activity in line with virtue — and “one swallow does not make a summer.”
The golden meanBook II
Virtue is the reasoned middle between too little and too much — not “moderation in all things,” and some acts have no right amount at all.
Weakness of willBook VII
Akrasia: how a person can know the better and still do the worse.
The three friendshipsBook VIII
Friendships of use, of pleasure, and of character — the last is rare, and the friend becomes “another self.”
The contemplative lifeBook X
The highest happiness is not action or pleasure but contemplation, the most godlike thing in us.