Nichomacean Ethics

Arguably his most famous piece of literature, Nicomachean Ethics is Aristotle’s take on how life should be lived and what life’s motivation should be. Since their inception in the 4^th century BC, these ethics have been referenced, cited, and utilized by all sorts of individuals, including lawyers, philosophers, and everyday men. Although the complete work deals with ethics as a whole, this four chapter excerpt highlights some important aspects of ethics: the types of life, source of good/happiness, and the importance/ nature of virtue. Since there are four chapters in total, I will briefly synopsize each of them and then continue to how they function as a whole.

Chapter five from Nicomachean ethics is Aristotle proposal of the two of the three types of life: the life of political success and the life of contemplation. The former of these two seeks honor to satisfy their happiness needs while the latter seeks knowledge to satisfy their happiness. Aristotle condemns the political life for being superficial and unfulfilling, and then he says, “we shall consider later” the contemplative life.

Chapter seven from Nicomacahean ethics analyzes the dynamic between good and happiness. Aristotle identifies the fact that all of us seek the greatest good. What sets the greatest good apart from other good is that it is an end with nothing subsequently resulting for it: we seek the greatest good not in pursuit of something else, but in pursuit of it alone. It is an end. What is this greatest good though? It is happiness. His reasoning behind this is as follows: “Happiness, then, is something final and self-sufficient, and is the end of action.”

Chapter eight from Nicomachean ethics identifies the fact that happiness comes from virtue and virtuous living. Aristotle comments that many different men have sought virtue in combination with other things including wisdom, pleasure, and prosperity. While virtue provides the ultimate good (happiness), Aristotle comes to terms with the fact that material and life sustaining needs must also be fulfilled. He comments that this fact has forced some to seek only these material pleasures: “As we said, then, happiness seems to need this sort of prosperity in addition; for which reason some identify happiness with good fortune, though others identify it with virtue.”

Chapter nine from Nicomachean ethics looks at the dynamic between happiness/virtue and in turn comes to this conclusion: that it is “plain also from the definition of happiness; for it has been said to be a virtuous activity of soul, of a certain kind.” Although he touched on this in the last chapter, Aristotle reiterates the fact that less significant goods must precede virtuous happiness based on the fact that we have survival needs. The final conclusion made by Aristotle in this chapter is bold: happiness require complete virtue and complete life.

The feelings that this excerpt from Nicomachean ethics evoke are very strong ones based on both composition and context. What I mean by this is that the content contained in it is very powerful and wise, and at the same time, the fact that it has survived two and a half millennia is truly amazing. From this piece I learned about the three types of life and why the first two are superficial and insignificant compared to the third. The most important insight that I gathered though was the fact that while happiness from virtue is the ultimate goal, there are lesser happinesses (goods) that must precede and coincide with it.

In terms of relating this excerpt to the big picture, I had referenced Nicomachean ethics very early on in the semester in regards to the “Not Too Loose, Not Too Tight” article. The correlation here is that both pieces of literature talk about developing a life style around finding happy mediums. Although the four chapters we read did not touch on this fact specifically, there are other class and life relations. For instance, the happiness that Artistotle describes as stemming from virtue seems very similar to happiness sought in the whole Sacred Time book. Both Eberle and Aristotle are vehement in refuting the conventional institutions of material and superficial happiness. In terms of life relations, this Aristotle’s ideals remind a lot of those proposed in Christianity. Both schools of thought condemn materialism and shallow living, all the while promoting thought, reflection, and virtue.

All in all, this excerpt from Nichomacean ethics has a ton of meaning in my life. First off, it has made it clear that what I seek in life (whether I know it or not) is happiness also known as the greatest good. The value in this stems from the fact that I will now identify lesser goods, such as monetary and successful happiness, and let them be subsidiary to my virtuous happiness. The second meaning it has is that I now understand happiness to be self sufficient. As a result, I will seek it as my number one goal.

Questions –

You touched on habituation and development of virtue? Although I have read other excerpts of the work, I still do not really understand what habituation means.

At what point do you know that material good is no longer subsidiary to virtuous good? How do you avoid this?

I have always been very confused with the term politics or political. What does it mean in the context of NIchomacean Ethics?