ARISTOTLE’S ETHICS
Aristotle: 384 – 322 BCE
Aristotle was born in Stagira, Macedonia, in what is now part of northern Greece.
The city was a seaport on the coast of Macedon. (Since most Greeks were known
only by one name, they were often identified by the city of their birth. Hence
Aristotle was known in his lifetime as Aristotle of Stargira.) The Macedonians,
during Aristotle’s life, dominated the rest of Greece and much of Europe, under King
Philip and then Alexander the Great, of whom Aristotle was a teacher. Aristotle was
the son of a doctor, Nichomachus, who was closely allied to the court in Macedonia.
As such, throughout his life, Aristotle was seen as close to the rulers of Macedonia,
considered by the citizens of the other Greek city-states as foreign conquerers.
Aristotle moved to Athens in 367 BCE, attending Plato’s Academy until Plato’s death
in 347 BCE. During this twenty year period, Plato wrote many of his most important
and mature works, including the Timaeus, Sophist, Statesman, and Laws. These
works had an enormous influence on Aristotle’s own work, even if, in the end, he
disputes a number of Plato’s claims.
Aristotle left the Academy and Athens in 347 BCE. First, he moved to Atarneus in
Mysia. Here, Aristotle married Pythias, a niece of Hermeias, the ruler of Atarneus.
They had a daughter, also called Pythias. After the death of his wife, Aristotle had a
son Nicomachus with Herpyllis. Later, Aristotle left for the island of Lesbos, and then
back to Macedon. Back home, Aristotle again was close to the ruling family of
Macedon, tutoring the young Alexander the Great. In 334 BCE, Aristotle returned to
Athens, founding his own school, the Lyceum.
It is important to note that Aristotle’s works that survive were texts of lectures from
his days at the Lyceum. While many parts of his texts were polished enough to
suggest that he would publish them, other parts of Aristotle’s surviving work
includes incomplete sentences and paraphrased notations. Aristotle's lectures were
preserved by a student, Theophrastus, who put the books in a vault. For close to 300
years, Aristotle’s work was lost to the world, until discovered by a Roman scholar in
100 BCE. The order in which Aristotle’s works appear in the Greek manuscripts goes
back to early editors and commentators during the era of the late Roman empire. As
such, the titles to Aristotle’s work were provided by these editors. For example, it is
usually assumed that Aristotle “invented” metaphysics due to the book of this name.
However, the term metaphysics was placed on a certain text of Aristotle’s, since it
was agreed that this text would follow the Physics in a published edition of
Aristotle’s work. That is, the text would be meta, after or above, the text of the
Physics, which preceded it.
In 323 BCE, Alexander the Great passed away and so with him the influence of
Macedon on the other Greek city states. The Macedonian-led government of Athens
fell and the new rulers brought charges of impiety against Aristotle. Aristotle left
Athens amidst a fervor of anti-Macedonian feeling for the island of Euboea, where
he died in 322 BCE of a stomach illness. Before leaving Athens, fearing for his life,
Aristotle is reputed to have said “The Athenians might not have another opportunity
of sinning against philosophy as they have already done in the person of Socrates.”
1
For Aristotle, as he puts it in his Metaphysics and NE, we must begin with what is
“better known to us” (1029b3). In essence, what we know best is the empirical
world around us. Aristotle’s method is to use induction from particular
observations, generalizing from a set of phenomena to reach a principle. But this
principle must continually be tested against further empirical data and other
principles. In philosophical inquiry, Aristotle argues that we must begin
“empirically” by critically studying the common beliefs of the community and the
thoughts of prior philosophers. This should not be taken to suggest that Aristotle
considered knowledge learned from the senses as the only form of knowledge.
Aristotle argued for universals and ultimate causes, such as justice and God, which
may not necessarily be found in the sensory world. Yet, for Aristotle, “what is better
known to us” must always be the starting point for a philosophical or scientific
investigation.
Another feature of Aristotle’s method is to begin by way of analysis, which is defined
as breaking up what is being investigated into its component parts. As he puts it in
Book I of The Politics, “What I am saying will be clear if we examine the matter
according to the method of investigation that has guided us elsewhere … A
composite has to be analyzed until we reach things that are incomposite, since these
are the smallest parts of the whole, so if we also examine the parts that make up a
city-state, we shall see better both how these differ from each other, and whether or
not it is possible to gain some expertise in connection with each of the things we
have mentioned” (1252a15-20). We will see this in our reading of the NE.
Key Terms for Reading the Ethics
In order to better understand Aristotle’s Ethics, we must first get on the same page,
so to speak, with regard to the terminology that Aristotle is using. We will also need
to review terms that would have been familiar to Aristotle’s Greek readers, but are
less familiar to 21st century readers. However, no definition is ever set in stone and
good scholars argue over the precise meaning of Aristotle’s terminology, from what
he means by knowledge (epitemē) to his conception of virtue. In other words, as
critical readers, you should use these definitions and comments as a help in reading
the text; only a thorough reading of the assigned text will help you in gaining a
foothold with Aristotelian terminology. (One note on terminology: I use the term
“man” and “men” quite a bit below in reference to citizenship and the community.
This sexist terminology is purposeful since Aristotle, as we shall see, explicitly
excludes women from acting within the political realm.)
ACTION (praxis): We get the English word “practice” from the Greek “praxis,” which
is the result of deliberate choice. Aristotle differentiates in Book I of the Politics
between praxis and production. Praxis is an end in itself, while production has an
end, is for the sake of, what is produced, for example when one makes a chair. For
Aristotle, only free people can act in this specific sense, since the end of any action is
acting well, which is the action itself. Action, like happiness, is an end in itself. It is
not for the sake of anything but itself; it is the mark of a free man that he can act
since he makes a decision to act, and action doesn’t merely happen to him.
2
COMMON BELIEFS (endoxa): Aristotle begins most of his treatises, and thus his form
of dialectic, by treating common beliefs first.
CITY-STATE (polis): The dominant political unit in Ancient Greece. The city-states
were generally small with one common culture among their inhabitants, except for
that of foreign-born slaves. City-states included Athens, Sparta, and Thebes. For
Aristotle, the non-deviant city-state would be one in which free and equal citizens
are bound together in a community whose end is the most mutually beneficial life
possible.
COMMUNITY: Men, according to Aristotle, are by nature political animals. The first
communities, according to Aristotle, were families spaced out across the landscape.
Aristotle is almost unique among political philosophers in his claim that the political
community is “natural,” that is, not something artificially produced (see the
distinction above between action and production). The family is a natural result of
man’s wish to partake in the divine by way of a quasi-immortality, by producing
offspring that will continue the blood-line of a family. As Aristotle traces it in Politics
Book I, the family naturally gathers together in mutual need (exchange of goods,
etc.) into villages, the second type of community. This community is modelled on the
family, according to Aristotle, with a king presiding over the village as a father does
over a family and its slaves. Finally, a number of villages joined together for mutual
benefit is the most mature type of community, the city-state., which “comes to be for
the sake of living, but it remains in existence for the sake of living well” (1252b).
DECISION (prohairesis): A decision, according to Aristotle, is the result of a wish for
something that is good for us, and comes about after delibertation using one’s
practical wisdom (phronesis).
ETHICS AND POLITICS: Put simply at this point, ethics, for Aristotle, is the ability to
review blameworthy and praiseworthy actions of human beings. Ethics seeks to
discover a careful balance between the good of the individual and the good of the
community. The Nichomachean Ethics proceeds from the standpoint of the
individual while the Politics proceeds from the standpoint of the community. Each
domain, the political and the ethical, is concerned with what Aristotle takes to be the
ultimate good, namely happiness, which is an end for its own sake.
The word “ethics” is derived from the Greek adjective ēthikos, which itself is derived
from the Greek word ēthos, which means character. For Aristotle, in order to form a
good character or ēthos, one must have formed good habits, or ethoi (note: this a
different Greek word—no long “e”), formed through a good education.
END (telos): As Aristotle explains in book I of the NE, the nature of anything is its
end. In his Metaphysics, A. argues that there are four causes of any event or object;
we will illustrate this with the example of the statue:
1. The material cause. Bronze or marble would be the material cause of the
statue; it is its material make-up.
2. The formal cause. This would in most cases be the form of the event or thing;
it is the definition of what the thing is. For example the statue of liberty is in
the form of a woman holding a torch and representing a beacon of freedom.
3
3. The efficient cause. This is the direct source, which brought the statue into
being. It would be better to think of the efficient cause as the “cause of
change.” The sculptor would be the efficient cause of the statue.
4. Final cause. Most important for the discussion in the Politics is the final cause,
the telos or event of the event or object. For example, the final cause of a
statue is to represent something, such as Lady Liberty. An acorn’s final cause
would be a tree; it is the goal for which it exists.
Taking up any event or object, one cause is usually more relevant to the discussion.
For the city-state, the most important cause is the final cause. But as we will also see,
the formal cause, the particular form (aristocracy, democracy etc.) will also be
important to Aristotle. For now, it is important to keep in mind that the final cause
of any community, the development it will ultimately lead to, is found in the citystate. And the final cause of the city-state, that for which it is set up, is the good,
what Aristotle will define as “living well,” and what we might loosely think of as
happiness.
FUNCTION (ergon): The Greek word ergon also means “work,” and the use of ergon
in the NE has been argued over. Essentially, Aristotle argues that each thing or
animate being (that is, anything with a soul) works in a particular way or has a
certain function. If it performs its function well, then it is said to have an aretē, an
excellence about it. To perform one’s function (ergon) excellently (with aretē), for
Aristotle, is to be a fully ethical human being, and to be happy.
GOOD (agathos): For Aristotle, the ultimate end, that which is “good” for each
human being, is happiness. A good is the result of an action, what we seek in doing
something. Everything we do is for the sake of some good. Some things are “good in
themselves,” for example, happiness. We do not seek happiness in order to get
wealth. Rather wealth, which is a good, is sought for a larger good, a good in itself,
namely happiness.
HAPPINESS (eudaimonia): This is the ultimate goal of all human praxis and is the
ultimate goal of any community. Happiness is found in reflecting upon God,
practicing philosophy, or enjoying the company of one’s friends. All of these
activities are only available, according to Aristotle, in a political community that
affords its free citizens the leisure time to do so. But we should not confuse
eudaimonia with our contemporary notion of happiness, which is simply a synonym
for pleasure. Certainly, there is pleasure involved in the happiness that Aristotle is
talking about, but it is also the ultimate fulfillment of the life of a citizen freely acting
within the community. It will be an important part of your task in reading Book I of
the Ethics to seek out what Aristotle means by this. As he notes, all men have a
different notion of happiness based on their different lives.
JUSTICE (dikē): Justice is the “common benefit.” For Aristotle, a city-state cannot
exist without justice, which for Aristotle is the virtue, the defining property, of a citystate.
MEAN (mesotēs): Aristotle is famous for what is called the “Aristotelian mean.” As
outlined in Book IV of the NE, and explained further in book VI, if we perform our
function well as human beings, we seek the mean or the intermediate between two
extremes in order to practice virtue. For example, in order to practice courage, we
4
must react to our fears in a moderate fashion, aiming for a mean or intermediate
state between two extremes: (1) showing no restraint in the face of our fears, which
would be cowardice, but (2) also not ignoring our fear, which, in the face of
overwhelming odds, for example on the battlefield, which would be stupidity. It is
brave to fight when one has a possibility of succeeding, even if the odds are slim; it is
not brave, according to Aristotle, to fight when there are no odds of winning. This is
not bravery and does not find the mean between the two extremes.
NOBLE (kalon): For Aristotle, what is noble is the result of virtue, and free citizens
prefer what is noble to all else. The noble is an end in itself, in contrast to what is
useful, something used in order to get something else (i.e. using a slave to plow the
fields).
PLEASURE (hēdonē): We get our word “hedonism,” for the belief that pleasure is the
ultimate good, from the Greek word hēdonē. Aristotle was not, however, a hedonist.
He believed that we must not mistake pleasure for happiness, as many of his
contemporary Greeks did and many still do today. Rather pleasure is a by-product of
things that are good, including being a virtuous human being. Pleasure is important
in Aristotle: if we are educated rightly, and form a good character, we will derive
pleasure from doing what is good for others, from performing our virtues. A person
that is not rightly educated will instead find pleasure in things that are destructive
to our communities.
PRUDENCE PRACTICAL WISDOM (phronēsis): In the Nichomachean Ethics
distinguishes between phronesis, translated as “practical wisdom,” and theoria, pure
contemplation. Practical wisdom is used by the statesman, while theoria is the
province of the philosopher. For Aristotle, it is important that the virtuous person,
under whatever constitution the state operates, is a virtuous person performing
virtue for its own sake. This virtue requires a special kind of “knowledge,” different
from the theorizing of the philosopher. A person with practical wisdom deliberates
upon a course of action to take using his or her prudence. Pracitcal wisdom
therefore entails grasping the nature of what is going on in the city-state to make a
definitive decision here and now. For Aristotle, practical wisom is built up by
experience, because it is not just a set of rules that can be applied mechanically. In
other words, one can’t just learn practical wisdom by reading a book.
SLAVES and WOMEN: Aristotle’s ethical and political theory is marked by an
oppressive view of slaves and women. For Aristotle, slaves are a natural part of the
family, ruled over by a master. It is natural, he believes, for Greeks to rule over nonGreeks; non-Greeks captured during war were taken home as slaves. A slave lacks
reason, according to Aristotle, which it must get from the orders of its master. For
Aristotle, the slave is better off under the rule of his master since he would
otherwise not be able to partake in the use of reason (albeit indirectly by following
the orders of his master), thus reducing him totally to animality. In addition, men
are natural rulers and women are always to be ruled. A woman has some ability to
reason, but this ability “lacks any authority.” It’s never made clear what Aristotle
means by this, except the implication that a woman will do something differently
than what her reason tells her to do. She might figure out the best course of action,
but do something completely different. In the hierarchy that Aristotle sets up, the
lowest rung is taken up by animals, hen slaves, women, male boys, and men, in
5
ascending order. Male boys have an ability to deliberate and will someday grow into
full citizens.
SOUL (psuchē): For Aristotle, the soul is nothing other than the activity of a living
body. A way to understand this would be that if there were no soul, then animals
and human beings would not have a soul. Yes, animals have a soul, according to
Aristotle, though one that is limited to perception and desire. For Aristotle, the
human soul has appetites or desires, the ability to sense and perceive, and also the
ability to reason, which is what differentiates our souls from those of animals. The
soul is not separate from the body, but is rather the cause of its activity from within
itself. If we are to be ethical, according to Aristotle, then one part of the soul (the
non-rational part, the one that is based in perception and desires things) must be
ruled over by the other part of the soul, the one based in reason. The rational part of
the soul, for a virtuous person who has formed good habits, will be the only one who
is able to act ethically.
VIRTUE (aretē): This is the center of Aristotle’s political and ethical theory. In
Aristotle’s use of the term, virtue means more than simply having “ethical virtue” as
we use the term. A man’s virtue is that which makes him a good man: his
intelligence, courage, practical wisdom, etc.
Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics Outline
Book I
Quick synopsis: Aristotle begins the NE by noting, on the one hand, that there seem
to be many goods that people make decisions in order to reach or receive, and that
for each science has its own end (for example, health as the end of medicine) or the
for-the-sake-of-which of the enterprise (§1). On the other hand, while each science
has its own good, there must be some science or inquiry which is the genus (the
highest class) under which all the other sciences are placed; this is the most
important science, which for Aristotle at this point is political science (§ 2). This is
an extremely important point given what Aristotle writes later in Book 10 about the
importance of the theoretical life. For the moment, we will leave the question open
the question of which is more important in Aristotle’s schema: the political life of
action or the solitary life of philosophical contemplation (hint: possible paper topic).
Aristotle, for the moment, places great emphasis on the early point. The striking
thing about the early sections of Book I is the way in which Aristotle argues not only
that ethics is a part of politics, but also that ethics will not have the exactness of
rules and procedures that we would see, for example, in mathematics (§1). This is
because, as Aristotle will again note in Book VI, ethics is not something that can be
taught like facts and figures, but is a way of living that comes through the habit and
experience; an intelligent person (as Aristotle means it, an intelligent person must
be ethical) is unlikely to be young for this reason.
In §4 and §5, Aristotle begins to discuss the notion of happiness. Do not be thrown
off by the various definitions that he will throw at you in the text. Aristotle will test
out a number of different definitions and it will be your job as a reader to discern
which definition of happiness (or justice or politics, etc. etc.) that he settles upon.
After all, happiness had been commonly defined as many different things, such as
6
having wealth, pleasure, good health, knowledge, etc. Indeed, each person seems to
define happiness by his own status in life: the philosopher tends to think happiness
is found in knowledge while the wealthy or the envious poor might see happiness
resting in the amount of one’s wealth.
In § 5, Aristotle outlines why he thinks that happiness (eudaemonia) is not pleasure,
since this does not befit a person of action; those who find happiness to pleasure are
slaves, not free. Happiness also isn’t the seeking of honor for a similar reason: one
must rely on others to be honored. In § 4, Aristotle argues against the Platonic
notion of the good. For Plato, the Good is a universal idea, encompassing everything.
For Aristotle, however, each science has its own good. We will come back to this
argument when we study The Symposium. (This will also be likely related to a final
paper question comparing the work of Aristotle and Plato.)
In §7, Aristotle relates an important distinction between useful goods and goods-inthemselves. We aim for happiness in itself; goodness (and later virtue) are goods-inthemselves. But such things as wealth are not ends-in-themselves, since we aim for
wealth in order to gain something else, namely happiness. Happiness, Aristotle
argues, “ apparently something complete and self-sufficient, since it is the end of the
things pursued in action” (1097b). Also, note that Aristotle is clear here that
happiness is not a property that one gains and is able to keep for all time; happiness
is an activity. We aim for this highest good all the time – it is a wellness of living that
we shoot for in our other activities, such as work and school – but it is not
something that we can gain, like a diploma, and carry around with us.
Also in Book I:
 Aristotle argues that a child cannot be happy, because it can’t partake in the
life of the community with friends. Happiness needs a complete life (§11).
 For Aristotle, it is not fortune or fate that decides whether one is happy (say,
by guiding one to the winning lottery ticket), but rather it “is the activities
expressing virtue that control happiness” (1100a).
 The essence of being human, as opposed to animals and plants, is to act in
accordance with reason (§13).
 There are three types of goods: goods of the body, external goods (such as
property), and goods of the soul. The last is the most important.
 Politic science aims at producing laws that cultivate nobility in the city’s
citizens. Aristotle will come back to this in Book 10. Aristotle will argue that a
city must have a good education system in order for it to have good people as
its citizens.
Book II:
Quick Narrative Synopsis: Aristotle begins Book II by tying together the notions of
deliberate choice, reason, and prudence. These will become more important later as
we study Book VI. The main distinction that Aristotle makes is between those who
happen to act virtuously and those who are virtuous. In other words, a person can
happen to act virtuous without meaning to, such as if someone slipped and fell,
knocking over someone from an on-coming bus. For Aristotle, virtue lies in one’s use
of the freedom of deliberative choice to act virtuous (1105b). Nevertheless, we
shouldn’t take this to mean that Aristotle doesn’t place great value on acting
virtuously: to be virtuous one must act on one’s virtuous choices; one cannot be
7
virtuous if one’s acts are rarely in accord with his or her wishes to be virtuous. In
addition, it is by acting virtuous – as we may do by rote as we grow older (such as
when we are children and don’t steal out of fear of being punished – that we form
the good habits for when we are mature enough to act virtuous for its own sake.
This requires a good political system in which the elders take care to make sure that
the one are inculcated into a virtuous lifestyle. As we will see later in the NE, it isn’t a
matter of ethical data or rules that can be passed on from parent to child, but rather
a way of being, i.e. habits formed from the earliest age possible, that can greatly help
one to be virtuous later in life. Only one who has been brought up with good
virtuous habits will be able to understand later on the reasons hat one should be
virtuous; without these habits formed early, as Aristotle puts it, even the most
brilliant teacher (or, in our case, a good reading of the NE) will be met with deaf ears
to his or her attempts to persuade his or her students into acting virtuous. Another
way of putting all of this is that virtues and vices (the opposite of virtue) are not just
a matter of feelings: “We are neither praised nor blamed insofar as we have feelings
… virtues are decisions of some kind, or <rather> require decision” (1105b).
Further, Aristotle defines virtue: “[E]very virtue causes its possessors to be in a
good state and to perform their functions well; the virtue of eyes, for instance makes
the eyes and their functioning excellent … If this is true in every case, then the virtue
of a human being will likewise be the state that makes a human being good and
makes him perform his function well” (1106a).
Book III:
Aristotle begins Book III by noting that people receive praise, blame, or pity based
on whether their actions are voluntary or involuntary. An involuntary action is one
done out of force (for example, if you are held at gun-point in order to do
something) or ignorance (i.e. you don’t know that what you are doing is a vice). The
ethics of virtue can only take up those actions that are voluntary (in fact, as Aristotle
defines it, actions [praxis] must always be voluntary) (§1). Aristotle combats the
argument that everything is forced, since we are led by our passions to act one way
or another. For Aristotle, as we will see clearly in Book VI, the virtuous person, by
habit, learns to use reason and deliberation, and not passions. Yes, Aristotle agrees
that many men are slaves to their passions. But at some point they have chosen to
be led by them, and what’s more, most people led by their passions do not regret
their actions after the fact, suggesting that indeed they chose to live this way. In
other words, an action performed through temper or desire is still voluntary (see
1111a).
In §2, Aristotle turns to decision. Only adult males, for Aristotle, can make decisions.
This does not mean that children and animals cannot do something voluntarily, but
it means that decision is a category or class of voluntariness (just as flounder is a
category or class of fish). As Aristotle notes, “the actions we do on the spur of the
moment [and A. is assuming that animals and children simply do things on the spur
of the moment] are said to be voluntary, but not to express decision” (1111a). The
ability to make decisions, by use of practical reason, is a defining characteristic of
being a human being. Aristotle then turns to distinguishing between wishes and
decisions. Wishes, for A., are for things that take place beyond the scope of our
agency: We can wish for world peace or immortality, but these are beyond what we
can accomplish ourselves. However, we can decide to do our homework and study
8
for our favorite class. This is an important distinction because for Aristotle, it is not
our wishes – sorry to all the Ms America contestants that have wished for world
peace – but what we decide is what counts for our character.
Toward the end of §2, Aristotle notes that decision and choice is intimately tied up
with deliberation: “For decision involves reason and thought, and even the name
itself would seem to indicate that [the decision (prohaireton)] is chosen [hiareton]
before [pro] other things” (1112a). In §3, Aristotle notes that deliberation occurs
“where the outcome is unclear and the right way to act is undefined. And we enlist
partners [this will be important later when he talks about friendship] on large issues
when we distrust our own ability to decide [the right answer]” (1112a). Further, as
Aristotle notes, we deliberate about the means for achieving an end, not the end
itself. For example, as doctor can deliberate on the means for curing his or her
patient, but he cannot deliberate, and thus decide, that his patient will be cured; the
means must be deliberated upon first. To put it another way, deliberation is a form
of inquiry, which thinks about means, but not all inquiry is deliberation; some forms
of inquiry think about the ends that doctors, human beings, etc. should achieve.
Aristotle summarizes his view nicely: “What we deliberate about is the same as
what we decide to do, except by the time we decide to do it, it is definite; for what
we decide to do is what we have judged [to be correct] as a result of deliberation”
(1112b).
In §4, Aristotle turns again to wishes: a man of virtue will wish for what is truly
good; a man of vice will not necessarily do so. Most people think that the good is
pleasure and thus their judgment about the good is deceived. In §5, Aristotle ties
together his whole discussion earlier about wish and decision: we wish for an end;
we deliberate and decide for the means to the end (1113a). Aristotle then turns to
actions and habits. Yes, Aristotle argues, we often no longer deliberate upon what
we do because of bad habits; nevertheless, we must have had a deliberate choice at
the beginning before we formed the bad habits. As such, both habits and actions are
voluntary since we can choose to behave in a certain way at the very the beginning.
Book VI
First, let’s back up a bit to recall that Aristotle’s NE is focused on reason,
deliberation, choice, and action because these are, he believes, the natural starting
point for any discussions of ethics. Without decision-making, there would be no
such things as ethics, since we would simply follow some pre-programmed fate; this
is why Aristotle spends a great length of time on the questions of happiness
[eudaemonia] (why we choose one thing over another), virtue [aretē] (the character
that we would have in making correct choices), voluntariness (whether we can
make choices in the first place), and action [praxis](the means by which we seek to
fulfill a certain goal).If In short, Aristotle’s ethics is mostly concerned with
praiseworthy and blameworthy actions and their connection, if any, to praiseworthy
and blameworthy states of mind. Ethics, we should recall, is a subset of political
science, and the examples Aristotle will use in Book VI will mostly have to do with a
political leader deliberating over decisions to be made for the sake of the polis or
city-state. Let’s also recall that eudaemonia (happiness) is the end that each of us
wants for its own sake. Nobody wants eudaemonia for something else; we don’t
want happiness in order to become rich, but the other way around. Aristotle begins
NE arguing that this is the natural human function, in the same way the nutritive life
9
is essential to what a plant is and desire is essential to what an animal is. This may
seem a contradiction to what we said earlier, namely that a human being is defined
by its ability to reason. For Aristotle, the two are intertwined. The good life must be
guided by reason in its two forms: sophia and phronēsis. Sophia, we shall see, tells us
what our ultimate goals are and phronēsis guides us to the means for getting there.
As such, the human good is action led by virtue toward happiness.
Phronēsis is one part of the soul’s reason; the other is sophia, which is the type of
reason that gives one access to universal ideas. For example, as Aristotle points out,
a child can have sophia because he or she can do mathematics and follow rules. But
phronēsis is something that needs to be developed through experience; for Aristotle,
this is something that any child (and woman, as he notes in the Politics) lacks. By
emphasizing phronēsis, Aristotle is trying to show that virtue is part and parcel with
grasping the needs of a given situation in order to make the right decision. We
cannot be given rules on how to act beforehand. We are given choices: we can
choose side A or side B and sophia can only tell us that our ultimate goal is
happiness, since this is univeral. What sophia cannot tell us is how to proceed.
Making the right ethical choice, then, means having experience in particular
situations. Only then can we know whether choosing side A or side B will be more
likely to give us the outcome we want. Aristotle even goes so far as to suggest that
phronēsis is like a type of visual perception in which one deliberates and “sees” what
to do.
10