European History : The Nicomachean Ethics World's Classics
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 Bait and Switch
I just received the Dover Thrift edition of Nichomachean Ethics and to my dismay discovered that this is not the Broadie and Rowe edition. To be sure, if I had been a more critical reader of the webpage, I would have discovered a link that led me elsewhere and from that I could have figured that out. But with all the explicit references to the Broadie and Rowe edition on this webpage, I looked no further. From the audiobook version of Broadie and Rowe, I can attest to the very natural language of the translation, and I would recommend it. But this is not Broadie and Rowe. Look elsewhere. The Dover edition is 100 years old and by modern standards the language is rather stilted, though certainly readable. But I am greatly disappointed.
 This is a very important book
Why is it important for even average people to know about the ancient philosopher Aristotle? It is necessary to realize that there are two approaches to life; one worldview follows the fourth century BCE Greek philosopher Plato, while the other is based on his disciple Aristotle. Plato's view is somewhat mystical and impractical. "Good" is what corresponds to some otherworldly item. If one's behavior resembles the otherworldly behavior it is good, otherwise it is bad. If a chair is like the otherworldly chair, it can be called a chair. How is this helpful? Unfortunately, and this is the vital point, most religions have followed the amorphous, impractical, non-informing Platonic view. This approach to life has not helped humans improve themselves and society. Aristotle, in contrast, was a pragmatist, a scientist, a clear intelligent observer of the world, people and society. He based his ideas and behavior on what could be proven. Thus, a chair is an item that can be used to sit on. Good behavior is what promotes and improves a person's well being; specifically, habits of action that are performed according to the "golden mean," not tending to an extreme of avoidance or its opposite. People should not starve themselves or overeat. Proper charity is not stinginess, nor is squandering a sizable part of one's wealth. Once this practical Aristotelian worldview is understood and once people realize that they must use their intelligence and not rely on the ideas of the past, they will live a better, be healthier, and have a more complete and satisfying life; and practice their religion as it should be practiced, with active productive behavior, not ascetic passivity.
A milestone in the exploration of virtue, community, and the end of man
1. Overview
In his Nichomachean Ethics, Aristotle develops a framework from which to explore morality, human happiness, and man's purpose. Some have suggested that Aristotle's framework for ethics was less rigid than that of his predecessor Plato, who took a deductive approach that began with the forms. Although Aristotle's form begins with the particulars in a more inductive fashion, his Ethics demonstrates that he is as much as a absolutist as Plato was. He concludes that there are certain values, such as courage or generosity, that are absolutely good, though they may manifest themselves in each individual differently.
2. Book I. Happiness
The ultimate purpose behind each person's existence is the attainment of happiness, which Aristotle defines as the contemplation of universal truth. Happiness is not for Aristotle a subjective feeling but rather an objective state that comes about when the soul engages in activity that accords with virtue.
In order to determine what this state of happiness looks like, Aristotle must define virtue. He first equates virtue with excellence in furthering man's purpose. Just as sharpness is the quality that makes a knife excellent because it furthers the knife's purpose, so too must we look to man's purpose in order to determine the qualities that further it. Aristotle holds that man's purpose is to lead a life of reason and deliberation. Happiness is thus equated with the rational activity of the soul that seeks to contemplate and understand reality. Virtue furthers this purpose and leads to a more complete life.
3. Books II, III, IV. Virtue of Character and the Preconditions of Virtue
What are the virtues that enabled man to fulfill his purpose? Aristotle defines moral virtue is a "mean" between the extremes of excess and deficiency. It is not an "average" between extremes, but rather, a central, balanced position. Moderation is the key to the virtues. For example, courage is a virtue that is the mean between cowardice and rashness: whereas the cowardly will not act at all, the rash will rush into imprudent and risky action. The courageous, in contrast, act at the right time and to the right extent in undertaking the right degree of risk. Similarly, pride is the mean between vanity and humility and gentleness is the mean between irascibility and spiritlessness.
In matters of wealth, the two extremes are prodigality, which leads to waste, and meanness or stinginess, which attaches too much importance on wealth. Generosity or liberality, in contrast, is the mean in matters pertaining to wealth. Wealth is therefore best used by the generous man, who spends for the sake of the noble and right; he will give the right amount to the right people at the right time.
Among the other virtues, Aristotle discusses magnanimity, temperance, truthfulness, justice, and wit. All of these virtues manifest themselves differently in each individual, but they always hold the characteristic of moderation between extremes. The more the individual acts out with knowledge and self-discipline in accordance with these virtues by making moral choices for the good, the more the individual will acquire virtue and true happiness.
4. Book VII. Incontinence
Aristotle distinguishes between three bad moral states--vice, incontinence, and brutishness--and their contrary states--virtue, continence, and superhuman virtue. He focuses his discussion on continence and incontinence. Whereas incontinence is weakness of will that impedes an individual from acting according to what he knows to be good, continence is the strength to do as he knows to be good and successfully resist the passions.
When one commits a vice, he acts immorally according to his choice. When he acts incontinently, however, he acts against what he knows to be the moral good, and thus acts against what his mind wills. Incontinent action is therefore not vice in the strict sense, and one may be consciously aware that he is committing an incontinent act while he is in the act of committing it.
The pleasures that may lead to incontinency revolve around three kinds of activities: (i) unnecessary pleasures, such as honor and wealth; (ii) things worthy of avoidance; and (iii) the necessary functions for life, such as food and sexual intercourse. An incontinent man is unable to abide by his resolutions to resist these desires.
5. Book VIII. Friendship and Community
Although a life of intellectual virtue is man's highest state of happiness, it involves a level of isolation that is not completely possible for man. Because man is a social creature, a necessary part of his life involves community and friendship, the relationship where a man acts out for the good of another and tastes his joys and shares his sorrows as though they were his own. Yet while man engages in friendship and community, his decisions should be governed by the intellect in accordance with virtue. It is the purpose of politics and the city to enable the framework from which men can realize this vision and thus live the good life.
6. Book X. Pleasure
As for pleasure, Aristotle does not equate it with the hedonistic sense that it has come to acquire in our modern day. Rather, pleasure is for Aristotle the ultimate good that results from virtuous action. Because virtue is inextricably tied up to happiness, the virtuous man leads the most pleasant life. Although the end or purpose of virtue is not pleasure, the virtuous man, because he engages in virtue for its own sake, will experience pleasure as a natural consequence of his nature.
Great Read, Great Translation
"Is it, then, the Good that people love, or only what is good for them?" Ethics VIII. 2
The Nicomachean Ethics presents Aristotle's search for the Good which leads the reader through a detailed analysis of the virtues, justice, pleasure and friendship. The discussion is peppered with insighful observations and sayings and it even includes a short treatise on money and economics.
Aristotle can be difficult to read, but this translation is friendly and the text flows well especially from Book V onwards. Hugh Tredennick's footnotes, glossary and appendices are an invaluable aid to understanding, though the introduction is more profitably read after the work. I would advocate forming your own view first and then challenging it against Barnes' stimulating essay.
Aristotle advocates the 'mean' as a practical moral guide (except for wrongs like murder) and he discusses this along with his table of virtues and vices across several chapters. According to Aristotle, "men are bad in countless ways, but good in only one" II. 6, and his virtue ethics aims to help people to achieve the 'Good'. Though Aristotle repeatedly returns to the issue of pleasure and justice, this analysis was the weakest part of the book and his study of intention ultimately yields too much to the passions (c.f. Book V.6).
Aristotle is certainly aware of the problems of hedonism and relativism but his solution of contemplation as happiness and the highest good can come across as too individualistic, elitist and lacking the required authority.
I can only at most half agree with statements such as:
"The study of pleasure and pain is the task of the political philosopher, because he is the master craftsman who decides the end which is the standard by which we call any given thing good or bad without qualification. VII. 6"
This aside, Aristotle's work is highly innovative, thorough and rightly respected as one of the best ethical treatises of all time.
Further Reading
BEFORE:
Aristotle for Everybody Great Introduction to Aristotle by his most passionate and articulate spokesman Mortimer Adler
Aristotle: A Very Short Introduction Written by the author of the introduction Jonathan Barnes
AFTER:
The Politics (Penguin Classics) The natural follow on from the Ethics
The Athenian Constitution (Penguin Classics) Aristotle's treatises applied to reality
Headwaters of Virtue Ethics. A true Golden Oldie
Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics, translated by J. A. K. Thomson (London, Penguin Classics, 2003) or
Aristotle XIX, Nichomachean Ethics, translated by H. Rackham (Cambridge, Harvard University Press, Loeb Classical Library, 1934)
I offer references to both a very modern, inexpensive, easily available edition, and to a scholarly edition with Greek and the English translation on facing pages. This is a testament to the importance of this ancient work. Among Greco-Roman philosophy, it is probably in the same league as Plato's Republic, since they arrive at the same main conclusion, albeit from very different routes.
After I left the study of professional philosophy and went off to earn a living, something very odd happened back in academia. The philosophical theories dominated by Kant's Categorical Imperative, Hobbes' social contract', and John Stuart Mill's `greatest good for the greatest number' all seemed to be reawakened to the value of `virtue ethics', of which Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics is the earliest, and still one of the best presentations. These theories from the first half of the 20th century all seemed to forget about the individual and concentrate on rules operating between people and `collective good'. There was some, but not much, talk of personal goods and virtues. The apotheosis of the 'modern' ethics, Kurt Baier's book The Moral Point of View, published in 1958 says nothing about virtues and only the thinnest section on 'Duties to Oneself'. But the tide started shifting in that very same year with the publication of G.E.M. Anscombe's journal article, `Modern Moral Philosophy', which questioned how well we really knew the meaning of psychological terms thrown around in the debates on moral theories.
I also have a suspicion that virtues staged a comeback with the great interest in modern biomedical ethics, where the relative roles of patients and health care professionals are so dramatically skewed, that normal rules of behavior between equals simply don't work. And if you consult modern texts on Biomedical Ethics, it is precisely the Nicomachean Ethics which they cite as their inspiration.
The less encouraging picture is that virtue ethics may be experiencing a comeback as a theory one can justify without any reference to the Judeo-Christian God. Aristotle may or may not have been devoted to the Olympian gods of Homer, Hesiod, and the playwrights, but I suspect he didn't take them too, too seriously, and he certainly did not even know of the Hebrew god. Thus, his ethical theories contain no divine underpinning, such as you find in Kant's ethics. The irony is that virtue ethics actually fits Christian theology better than an ethics based on moral rules (See this week's readings on Romans (Monday) and John (Wednesday).
Aristotle's theory, on the face of it, seems very similar to recent Utilitarianism (greatest good for the greatest number), but Aristotle is far more concerned with the kind of happiness which develops out of intellectual pleasures. In fact, an important statement of Christian virtue, the sixth beatitude (Matthew 5:8, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.") is very close to Aristotle's highest ideal of contemplation: "...if happiness consists in activity in accordance with virtue, it is reasonable that it should be activity in accordance with the highest virtue; and this will be the virtue of the best part of us....it is the activity of this part of us in accordance with the virtue proper to it that will constitute perfect happiness, and it has been stated already that the activity is the activity of contemplation, because the intellect is the highest faculty in us..."
One of Aristotle's great contributions was in the addition of `intellectual' virtues such as prudence to the traditional `moral' virtues. While those who dwell on moral rules may be inclined to push them a bit too far, Aristotle calls on prudence to attend to the details of the situation.
In reading Aristotle, I'm constantly impressed by the level of `common sense' he exhibits, as when he says that morality is all about doing and not purely an `intellectual exercise'. Just as one gets good at evaluating wines by tasting them and good at appreciating graphic art by looking at a lot of pictures, one improves one's virtue by consistently exercising your moral sensibilities. Intellectual virtues are developed by instruction, but moral virtues are the product of habit and practice, they are not `natural' abilities, present at birth, like the ability to see. The aim of legislation is to train citizens in right action.
Just as the aim of the church is to train our young in the best virtues.
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