Nicomachean Ethics Books I & II

Here is the last assignment on Aristotle I turned in for my class. Footnotes have been omitted. I'm done with this class. Booyah. 

Book I of the Nicomachean Ethics is primarily concerned with what the good, or best, life is. Book II of the Nicomachean Ethics is primarily concerned with what the virtuous life is, which is what the best life is to have been as discovered in Book I. Aristotle develops this by first noting that all acts have some end to which they aim. But even these aims may have a greater aim for which they strive for, so there must be some final end where all the striving is terminated. Aristotle found that it is happiness which all other things strive for. In order to find out what makes us happy, Aristotle wants to know what the end of man is since a good man is he who functions well. That function, which is a rational activity of his human soul, is to be virtuous. Having laid down the more broad inquiry of what kind of life we should be striving for, he then goes on to consider in Book II how it is that we learn to live that kind of life, and what that kind of life consists of. So given that the good and happy life is the virtuous life, how does one become virtuous? He briefly considers in Book I if these can be acquired by habit or by learning, but it comes out in more detail in Book II. One becomes virtuous, and thus happy, by habituating a virtuous life. These are ultimately, as a genus, states of character or dispositions. But a disposition towards what? Depending on the circumstances, towards moderation, that is, the mean or the intermediate state. So a moderate man, as prescribed in Book II, is the happy man in Book I.

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