Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics presents the reader with his thoughts on philosophical matters. In book two chapter four, Aristotle compares and contrasts virtue with the arts. He begins by addressing the possible question of what he means when...

Is Eudaimonia really attainable? One of the most important works that adopted this concept is Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. Aristotle was one of Plato’s students, but he rejected his teacher’s logic that reality lay beyond the everyday world in...

In Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle examines happiness, which is the good towards which every human action is directed. Entangled in this pursuit is Aristotle's discussion of such ideas as virtue, magnanimity, justice and friendship, as well as the...

Aristotle devotes the first six books of his Nicomachean Ethics to a discussion of virtue. In doing so he divides virtue into two different categories: moral virtue and intellectual virtue and discusses them individually. However, in our approach...

For Aristotle, the doctrine of the mean is a moral frame of reference by which each manÃÂÂs character can be better understood. When applied to specific virtues such as courage, it illuminates what Aristotle believes to be the complex relationship...

Aristotle asks good human beings to be self-lovers, devoting special attention to virtue's most fundamental groundwork. With all individual actions, it is the intellect which must determine the course of proper morality and strength of character;...

Many of Aristotle's views have stemmed from those of Plato. However, in Nicomachean Ethics and Politics, Aristotle criticizes four main arguments in Plato's Republic. They are: the way in which women and children should be held in common, the...

Not all are equal in Plato's Republic or Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics and Politics. Plato and Aristotle argue that people possess a certain natural ability that determines their role in society. The fundamental character of one's soul, in part,...

In both Plato's Republic and Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics and Politics, happiness is a state of stability and harmony that is present both within the individual and in his relations with other people. Furthermore, both philosophers emphasize...

What does it mean to be human? We are “decision-making creatures capable of overruling [their] own instincts.” It naturally follows that those tools which enable humans to exhibit these unique characteristics are the most essential to human...

Introduction

Niccolo Machiavelli’s seminal work of political science, The Prince, directed at a prince of the then-powerful Medici family of Florence, has been the subject of much debate over the centuries since it was published. Decried as a...

The conflict between the ideal and the reality has long been the center of the debate in the history of political philosophy. Many famous philosophers have constructed an imaginary world upon which their entire theories are based. They believe an...

The following essay aims to compare Ancient versus Modern theories of ethics, particularly those of Aristotle and Immanuel Kant. The central concepts of virtue, happiness, and the human good are relevant to modern ethics, but do not play the same...

The nature of goodness is distinctly disparate between Plato and Aristotle. Plato argues for a higher form of goodness, while Aristotle argues back with a societal form of goodness. Aristotle’s view of goodness is far more realistic to the actual...

Friendship is arguably the most relevant philosophical matter expounded upon in The Nicomachean Ethics. While other virtues may not be practiced on a daily basis, friendship and the implications of such a relationship are somewhat more consistent....

In the first two books of Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle asserts that the function of humans is to practice rational activity, which completed over a lifetime makes a good life. Aristotle first explores the function and ends of all actions and...

The rationale of the Dalai Lama has been a concept passed down from many generations. Being a line of reincarnations, very rarely have the morals deviated from the original Dalai Lama. Said to embody compassion, the Dalai Lama defined his duty to...

Several of the most famous stories told to young children were Aesop’s fables, creative stories designed to teach valuable life lessons. One of the most memorable to me was the fable about the lion that spared a mouse’s life and was later rescued...

Aristotle dedicates the first book of Politics to discuss households, and argues that to study the larger political community of a city-state, we need to first examine households as its building blocks (Politics, 5). The three major household...

Aristotle, Kant, Mill, and Plato: All influential philosophers with differing opinions on what it means to be marked by morality. One situation in which the opinions of these philosophers could be used to evaluate the morality of a person is in...

In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle describes virtues in two types, one of character and another of thought. Virtues of character include things like bravery, temperance, and generosity, while virtues of thought include wisdom and prudence. In...

Arthur Miller’s The Crucible was written in 1953 in conjunction with the anti-communist hysteria that had swept not only American society, but also the American justice system during the second Red Scare. Not contemporaneous to the time it was...

Animal rights have recently become a topic of interest in contemporary society, primarily due to the endangerment of many species, and the use of animals for types of lab testing. Human understanding of animals in the western world is shaped by...

In The Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle concerns himself with eudaimonia, the concept of a happy and fulfilling life. Eudaimonia is gained from meaningful happiness, which in turn in achieved through virtuous acts. Greek culture often favored the...