Building on the strengths of the first edition, the second edition of the Irwin Nicomachean Ethics features a revised translation (with little editorial intervention), expanded notes (including a summary of the argument of each chapter), an expanded Introduction, and a revised glossary. Hide browse bar Your current position in the text is marked in blue. Teach your students to analyze literature like LitCharts does.Detailed explanations, analysis, and citation info for every important quote on LitCharts.The original text plus a side-by-side modern translation of In other words, rather than merely going through the motions of committing virtuous actions, one must also Aristotle comes to a key component of his teaching on virtue—that virtue must aim at the intermediate state, or mean, between extremes of excess and deficiency.
Teachers and parents! Such an action is ARISTOTLE NICOMACHEAN ETHICS : L.0, C.1. that at which -everything aims. Our They're like having in-class notes for every discussion!” My students love how organized the handouts are and enjoy tracking the themes as a class.” The Greek terms for both “character” and “habit” are actually the same word, At the same time, the same things that develop a craft or a Aristotle argues that nobody is praised or blamed just for having feelings, or for having the capacity to feel things. Boost your life and career with the best book summaries.Boost your life and career with the best book summaries.If you need to read just one philosopher in your life, then it has to be either Plato or Aristotle.And if you need to read just one book by the latter, then it has to be the Everyone who has even the slightest interest in philosophy.Or, for that matter, everyone who wants to become a better person.He studied under Plato in his Academy for two decades between the ages of 17 and 37, after which he left Athens to tutor Alexander the Great. And since this is something everybody wants, then it’s necessary to discover what virtue means and how should one reach it.In the second book, Aristotle points out that, just like a lyre-player, no matter how talented, must learn and practice to become a virtuoso, a man, no matter how naturally inclined towards virtuous actions, And then Aristotle lays out the simplest definition for virtue: It means that anything in excess or deficiency is bad; and that everything in just the proper amount is virtue.At the end of Book II, Aristotle lists many character virtues and starting with Book III, he analyzes many of them in-depth.If that is the case, then even ignorance – not knowing what is good – is not actually an excuse, because you always have a choice to learn.So, more or less, Aristotle says that if you’re not, it’s your fault for not having read his book.And then he proceeds to explanations of what he means when he says that we should tread the middle way.Courage, according to Aristotle, is the mean between fear and confidence; in excess, it leads to fearlessness and overconfidence, both of which are bad; if deficient, it leads to cowardness, which is also bad.Temperance is the mean between pleasure and pain; in excess, it leads to wastefulness; in deficiency, it makes a man insensible.Book four deals with a second set of virtues, in four groups of two.The first group deals with two very similar virtues: Generosity may, once again, lead to wastefulness if in excess, and to stinginess if lacking; magnificence leads to vulgarity and tastelessness when excessive, and to paltriness if not enough.Magnanimity is located between vanity (excess) and smallness of soul (deficiency), and ambition is located between, well, overambitiousness and lack of ambition. Therefore, the goal (or end) of human activity is the highest good for “man”. ARISTOTLE NICOMACHEAN ETHICS Translated by W. D. Ross BOOK I CHAPTER 1 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 … By using our site, you acknowledge that you have read and understand our The highest good is the end (telos or goal) of that activity. In this passage, Aristotle highlights how the mean doesn’t necessarily mean a behavior that is moderate—it’s more like the right behavior or course of action in between two extremes.