Source edition
Aristotle. Aristotelis Ethica Nicomachea. Bywater, Ingram, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1894.
Source data
Perseus Digital Library · CC BY-SA 4.0
Cloned and adapted by Humanitext, with ongoing edits.
Summary
This work is a lecture series on practical philosophy by Aristotle, exploring what constitutes the highest good (happiness, *eudaimonia*) for human beings and how to attain it. Defining happiness as an activity of the soul in accordance with virtue (*arete*), the author divides virtue into moral (ethical) and intellectual categories. The early part of the treatise argues that moral virtue is acquired through habituation and represents a state of "the mean" (*mesotes*) between excess and deficiency, while also offering profound analyses of voluntary action and justice. The middle section examines intellectual virtues, particularly the practical wisdom of "prudence" (*phronesis*), along with friendship (*philia*) and self-control. Ultimately, Aristotle identifies the highest happiness in the contemplative life (*theoria*), which is the realization of the highest human faculty of intellect. The work concludes by pointing to the necessity of laws and state education to foster such virtues, bridging the discussion directly into politics.
Contents
123 chunks
Cited by book.section
- §1.1-1.3
- §1.4-1.5
- §1.6#1
- §1.6#2
- §1.7#1
- §1.7#2
- §1.8
- §1.9
- §1.10#1
- §1.10#2
- §1.11-1.12
- §1.13
- §2.1
- §2.2
- §2.3
- §2.4-2.5
- §2.6#1
- §2.6#2
- §2.7#1
- §2.7#2
- §2.8
- §2.9
- §3.1#1
- §3.1#2
- §3.2
- §3.3
- §3.4
- §3.5#1
- §3.5#2
- §3.6
- §3.7
- §3.8#1
- §3.8#2
- §3.9
- §3.10
- §3.11
- §3.12
- §4.1#1
- §4.1#2
- §4.1#3
- §4.2#1
- §4.2#2
- §4.3#1
- §4.3#2
- §4.4
- §4.5
- §4.6
- §4.7
- §4.8-4.9
- §5.1#1
- §5.1#2
- §5.2
- §5.3
- §5.4
- §5.5#1
- §5.5#2
- §5.6-5.7
- §5.8
- §5.9#1
- §5.9#2
- §5.10
- §5.11
- §6.1-6.2
- §6.3-6.4
- §6.5-6.6
- §6.7
- §6.8
- §6.9
- §6.10-6.11
- §6.12
- §6.13
- §7.1
- §7.2
- §7.3#1
- §7.3#2
- §7.4
- §7.5
- §7.6
- §7.7
- §7.8
- §7.9
- §7.10-7.11
- §7.12
- §7.13
- §7.14
- §8.1-8.2
- §8.3
- §8.4
- §8.5
- §8.6
- §8.7
- §8.8
- §8.9
- §8.10
- §8.11
- §8.12
- §8.13
- §8.14
- §9.1
- §9.2
- §9.3
- §9.4
- §9.5-9.6
- §9.7
- §9.8#1
- §9.8#2
- §9.9#1
- §9.9#2
- §9.10
- §9.11-9.12
- §10.1-10.2
- §10.3
- §10.4#1
- §10.4#2
- §10.5#1
- §10.5#2
- §10.6
- §10.7
- §10.8#1
- §10.8#2
- §10.9#1
- §10.9#2
- §10.9#3