Work · Ancient Greek
Nicomachean Ethics
Happiness (eudaimonia) as virtuous activity; virtue as a mean; practical wisdom.
Introduction
Ten books, probably based on Aristotle’s lectures; the title may refer to his son Nicomachus as editor. Three books are shared with the earlier Eudemian Ethics. The work starts from the question of the highest good, which everyone calls eudaimonia, flourishing or happiness, and asks what it consists in. Virtues of character arise through habituation; practical wisdom (phronēsis) finds the right action in each situation. Further books treat justice, weakness of will (akrasia), pleasure and, at length, friendship. Book X ranks the life of contemplation highest. The work is a main source of today’s virtue ethics, revived by Elizabeth Anscombe and Alasdair MacIntyre.
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Connections
Criticizes
- Republicc. 375 BCE · Plato
Taken up in
- The Virtuous Cityc. 942 · al-Farabi
- The Refinement of Characterc. 1020 · Miskawayh
- The Nasirean Ethicsc. 1235 · Nasir al-Din al-Tusi
- Summa theologiae1273 · Thomas Aquinas
- Intention1957 · G. E. M. Anscombe
- Modern Moral Philosophy1958 · G. E. M. Anscombe
- Truth and Method1960 · Hans-Georg Gadamer
- After Virtue1981 · Alasdair MacIntyre
- Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy1985 · Bernard Williams
- The Fragility of Goodness1986 · Martha Nussbaum
- Natural Goodness2001 · Philippa Foot
More works by Aristotle
- c. 350 BCEOn the Soul (De anima)
- c. 350 BCEOrganon
- c. 350 BCEPhysics
- c. 340 BCEMetaphysics
- c. 335 BCEPoetics
- c. 335 BCEPolitics
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