identify and explain the nichomachean ethics

This last point is meant to emphasize that in order to achieve the chief good one must live a complete life of excellence, all the way unto death.Ĥ.

Aristotle says that happiness is the chief good, and famously says that happiness is an “activity of reason in accordance with virtue… and this is in a full life” (1098a16-18). The chief good, still familiar to us today through use of the Latin term, summum bonum, is that thing at which all people aim, and for which all other things are done. The inquiry which serves to guide the entire enterprise of the Nichomachean Ethics is answering the question as to what is the chief human good. He further contends that the other uses of the word courage are really an extension of this primary usage from war. Nicomachus means “victor in the battle,” so it perhaps is no surprise that courage is the very first virtue discussed in detail, as Aristotle makes it a point to say that the prime exemplification of courage is courage in battle. 1) See Diogenes Laertius, Lives and Opinions of Famous Philosophers, Book V, Aristotle, for more (though perhaps dubious) information on the biography of Aristotle There is a tradition that holds, though, that the book was named after Aristotle’s son. Accordingly, we are unsure if the book was dedicated to or inspired by either Aristotle’s father or son, or perhaps his grandfather, who was confusingly also named Nicomachus. The Nicomachean Ethics is a book written by Aristotle named for Nicomachus (Νικόμαχος), which in keeping with the Greek practice of boys being named after their grandfathers, was the name of both Aristotle’s father and his son.

Identify and explain the nichomachean ethics