Nicomachean Ethics (Aristotle) Flashcards
Book 1 The good for man
All human activities aim at some good: some goods subordinate to others.
What is good for man?
It is generally agreed to be happiness, but there are various views as to what happiness is. What is required at the start is an unreasoned conviction about the facts, such as is produced by a good upbringing.
What enables a good choice?
Anyone who is to listen intelligently to lectures about what is noble and just and generally about the subjects of political science must have been brought up in good habits. For the fact is a starting point and if this is sufficiently plain to him he will not need the reason as well; and the man who has been well brought up has or can easily get starting points. And as for him who neither has nor can gain then let him hear the words of Hesiod: follow best is he who knows all things himself; good, he that Harkins when men cancels right; but he who neither knows, no one lays to heart another’s wisdom, is a useless weight.
Book 2 Moral virtue. Moral virtue like the arts is acquired by repetition of the corresponding acts.
Pleasure in doing virtuous acts is a sign that the virtuous disposition has been acquired: a variety of considerations show me a sensual connection of moral virtue(The genus of moral virtue: it is a state of character, not a passion, nor a faculty) with pleasure and pain.
