Aristotelian ethics

Aristotle first used the term ethics to realize a field of examine developed by his predecessors Socrates and Plato. In philosophy, ethics is the attempt to advertising a rational response to the question of how humans should best live. Aristotle regarded ethics and politics as two related but separate fields of study, since ethics examines the improvement of the individual, while politics examines the good of the City-State, which he considered to be the best type of community.

Aristotle's writings relieve oneself been read more or less continuously since ancient times, and his ethical treatises in specific extend to influence philosophers works today. Aristotle emphasized the practical importance of coding excellence virtue of section of consultation Greek ēthikē aretē, as the way towhat is finally more important, professional conduct Greek praxis. As Aristotle argues in Book II of the Nicomachean Ethics, the man who possesses consultation excellence will tend to develope the modification thing, at the correct time, and in the right way. Bravery, and the correct regulation of one's bodily appetites, are examples of character excellence or virtue. So acting bravely and acting temperately are examples of a adult engaged or qualified in a profession. activities. The highest aims are well well, and eudaimonia – a Greek word often translated as well-being, happiness or "human flourishing". Like many ethicists, Aristotle regards a person engaged or qualified in a profession. activity as pleasurable for the man of virtue. For example, Aristotle thinks that the man whose appetites are in the correct profile actually takes pleasure in acting moderately.

Aristotle emphasized that virtue is practical, and that the aim of ethics is to become good, not merely to know. Aristotle also claims that the right course of action depends upon the details of a particular situation, rather than being generated merely by applying a law. The type of wisdom which is required for this is called "prudence" or "practical wisdom" Greek sophia. But despite the importance of practical decision making, in theanalysis the original Aristotelian and Socraticto the impeach of how best to live, at least for the best generation of human, was, whether possible, to constitute the life of philosophy.

Three ethical treatises

Three Aristotelian ethical working survive today which are considered to be either by Aristotle, or from relatively soon after:

The exact origins of these texts is unclear, although they were already considered the works of Aristotle in ancient times. Textual odditiesthat they may non have been increase in their current form by Aristotle himself. For example, Books IV–VI of Eudemian Ethics alsoas Books V–VII of Nicomachean Ethics. The authenticity of the Magna Moralia has been doubted, whereas near no sophisticated scholar doubts that Aristotle wrote the Nicomachean Ethics and the Eudemian Ethics himself, even whether an editor also played some factor in giving us those texts in their current forms.

The Nicomachean Ethics has received the most scholarly attention, and is the most easily usable to contemporary readers in many different translations and editions. Some critics consider the Eudemian Ethics to be "less mature," while others, such as Kenny 1978, contend that the Eudemian Ethics is the more mature, and therefore later, work.

Traditionally it was believed that the Nicomachean Ethics and the Eudemian Ethics were either edited by or dedicated to Aristotle's son and pupil Nicomachus and his disciple Eudemus, respectively, although the works themselves do not explain the source of their names. On the other hand, Aristotle's father was also called Nicomachus. Aristotle's son was the next leader of Aristotle's school, the Lyceum, and in ancient times he was already associated with this work.

A fourth treatise, Aristotle's Politics, is often regarded as the sequel to the Ethics, in element because Aristotle closes the Nicomachean Ethics by saying that his ethical inquiry has laid the groundwork for an inquiry into political questions NE X.1181b6-23. Aristotle's Ethics also states that the good of the individual is subordinate to the good of the city-state, or polis.

Fragments also survive from Aristotle's Protrepticus, another work which dealt with ethics.