Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics (Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy) [Paperback]

Aristotle (Author), Roger Crisp (Translator)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521635462 | ISBN-13: 978-0521635462 | Publication Date: April 13, 2000

Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, based on lectures that he gave in Athens in the fourth century BCE, is one of the most significant works in moral philosophy, and has profoundly influenced the whole course of subsequent philosophical endeavor. Topics covered include the role of luck in human wellbeing, responsibility, courage, justice, friendship and pleasure. This accessible new translation follows the Greek text closely and also provides a non-Greek reader with something of the flavor of the original. The volume also includes a historical and philosophical introduction and notes on further reading.

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'The book, which is available at an affordable price, will no doubt prove useful for the readership of undergraduate and postgraduate students for which it is primarily intended.' Phronesis

Book Description

Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, based on lectures that he gave in Athens in the fourth century BCE, is one of the most significant works in moral philosophy, and has profoundly influenced the whole course of subsequent philosophical endeavour. Topics covered include the role of luck in human wellbeing, responsibility, courage, justice, friendship and pleasure. This accessible new translation follows the Greek text closely and also provides a non-Greek-reader with something of the flavour of the original. The volume also includes a historical and philosophical introduction and notes on further reading.

Product Details

• Paperback: 258 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (April 13, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521635462
• ISBN-13: 978-0521635462
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #92,846 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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11 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Doing the right thing, September 11, 2005

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FrKurt Messick "FrKurt Messick" (Bloomington, IN USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics (Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy) (Paperback)

Aristotle was a philosopher in search of the chief good for human beings. This chief good is eudaimonia, which is often translated as 'happiness' (but can also be translated as 'thriving' or 'flourishing'). Aristotle sees pleasure, honour and virtue as significant 'wants' for people, and then argues that virtue is the most important of these.

In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle makes the claim that happiness is something which is both precious and final. This seems to be so because it is a first principle or ultimate starting point. For, it is for the sake of happiness that we do everything else, and we regard the cause of all good things to be precious and divine. Moreover, since happiness is an activity of the soul in accordance with complete and perfect virtue, it is necessary to consider virtue, as this will be the best way of studying happiness.

How many of us today speak of happiness and virtue in the same breath? Aristotle's work in the Nicomachean Ethics is considered one of his greatest achievements, and by extension, one of the greatest pieces of philosophy from the ancient world. When the framers of the American Declaration of Independence were thinking of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, there is little doubt they had an acquaintance with Aristotle's work connecting happiness, virtue, and ethics together.

When one thinks of ethical ideas such as an avoidance of extremes, of taking the tolerant or middle ground, or of taking all things in moderation, one is tapping into Aristotle's ideas. It is in the Nicomachean Ethics that Aristotle proposes the Doctrine of the Mean - he states that virtue is a 'mean state', that is, it aims for the mean or middle ground. However, Aristotle is often misquoted and misinterpreted here, for he very quickly in the text disallows the idea of the mean to be applied in all cases. There are things, actions and emotions, that do not allow the mean state. Thus, Aristotle tends to view virtue as a relative state, making the analogy with food - for some, two pounds of meat might be too much food, but for others, it might be too little. The mean exists between the state of deficiency, too little, and excessiveness, too much.

Aristotle proposes many different examples of virtues and vices, together with their mean states. With regard to money, being stingy and being illiberal with generosity are the extremes, the one deficient and the other excessive. The mean state here would be liberality and generosity, a willingness to buy and to give, but not to extremes. Anger, too, is highlighted as having a deficient state (too much passivity), an excessive state (too much passion) and a mean state (a gentleness but firmness with regard to emotions).

Aristotle states that one of the difficulties with leading a virtuous life is that it takes a person of science to find the mean between the extremes (or, in some cases, Aristotle uses the image of a circle, the scientist finding the centre). Many of us, being imperfect humans, err on one side or the other, choosing in Aristotle's words, the lesser of two evils. Aristotle's wording here, that a scientist is the only one fully capable of virtue, has a different meaning for scientist - this is a pre-modern, pre-Enlightenment view; for Aristotle, the person of science is one who is capable of observation and calculation, and this can take many different forms.

Aristotle uses different kinds of argumentation in the Nicomachean Ethics. He uses a dialectical method, as well as a functional method. In the dialectical method, there are opposing ideas held in tension, whose interactions against each other yield a result - this is often how the mean between extremes is derived. However, there are other times that Aristotle seems to prefer a more direct, functional approach. Both of these methods lead to the same understanding for Aristotle's sense of the rational - that humanity's highest or final good is happiness.

There is a discussion of the human soul (for this is where virtue and happiness reside). Aristotle argues that virtue is not a natural state; we are not born with nor do we acquire through any natural processes virtue, but rather through 'habitation', an embedding process or enculturation that makes these a part of our soul. However, it is not sufficient for Aristotle's virtue that one merely function as a virtuous person or that virtuous things be done. This is not a skill, but rather an art, and to be virtuous, one must live virtuously and act virtuously with intention as well as form.

Of course, one of the implications here is that virtue is a quantifiable thing, that periodically resurfaces in later philosophies. How do we calculate virtue?

This is a difficult question, and not one that Aristotle answers in any definitive way. However, more important than this is the key difference that Aristotle displayed setting himself apart from his tutor Plato; rather than seeing the possession of 'the good' or 'virtue' as the highest ideal, Aristotle is concerned with the practical aspects, the ethics of this. Based on Aristotle's lectures in Athens in the fourth century BCE, this remains one of the most important works on ethical and moral philosophy in history.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Simply stated, a good read. A great book., March 5, 2008

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Stan Faryna (Bucharest, Romania) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics (Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy) (Paperback)

What is the good life? What is courage and how do we become courageous? Aristotle provides rational answers and insights to these questions and many more that we often ask ourselves- clear answers which are relevant to us today.

Stan Faryna

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars good, October 3, 2011

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Troy benallie (SYRACUSE, UT, US) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics (Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy) (Paperback)

I received the item within the time that the item was expected. The discription of the item was accurate. That's all I have to say on the matter.