Nicomachean Ethics

Book 1

Not just theoretical discussion, more like a practical guide on ethical living such as somebody could implement ideas presented in text and hopefully live a better life because of it,

Aristotle only expects to be able to come up with broad, general guidelines.

The goal is to seek the highest possible good
With the intent of using it as a "North star" to guide behavior.

Ultimate goal of most men in life is to achieve happiness

No one has the exactly the same definition of happiness

He generalizes it, three most common:

HAPPINESS

1 Life of Pleasure - Happiness as enjoyment

2 Life of Politics- happiness as honor
(Possession of virtue and honor do not necessarily make one happy, or impact on someone life)

3 Life of Contemplation- happiness as intelligence

FIRST PRINCIPLE

(Aristotle assumes readers already have some moral knowledge, gained through life experience)
-Aristotle goal is practicality, he doesn't want to spend too much time establishing basic principle
(Why happiness is in itself good)

GOOD

1 Things can be good for their own sake.

2 Things can also be good as the means to a different good

3 IDEAL GOOD - Therefore the Greatest Good should be the end to which all other goods are means.

Goods that serve as the means to other goods are subordinate to them.

So something that is good for its own sake and subordinated to no other good would be the greatest good of all.

According to Aristotle this thing is Happiness.

You can't use Happiness to achieve some other goods.

Motivation : Everything you do as either for Happiness or for the sake of something that will make you happy.

To live well is to live for the sake of happiness.
To live well is also to strive to excellence in every part of one's life.
Excellence for a human morality is to live virtuously

Wealth and political influence, material possession and friends are very desirable.

Execution of many virtuous and noble action requires this kind of things as tools.
It is easier for someone with money, power, and influence to do good, that it is for someone to do without.

BOOK 2

Virtue (Wisdom, justice, truth, honor, goodness)

Aristotle about moral virtue, it is not something that is inherent in the nature of humans.
Nature bestows us with certain capacities that are actualized by our habits.

Morality is both nature and nurture

- Nature determines capacity, life experience

Nature bestows us with certain range of possibilities and that nurture are life experience.

Somebody become just by performing just action, brave by performing brave action.

Virtues that are linked with this action aren't acquired before or after somebody acts.
The virtue is acquired during the action itself.

He is not saying that a single act of bravery make someone a brave person.

Our habits determine our character !!!

How one should act in order to build good habits ?

Any answers we get from this are bound to be very General.

Agreement to a first principle. ( virtue : justice , bravery are GOOD and opposite are BAD)

Just looking at a man action isn't really enough to tell you about his character.

 No one calls a man brave when he faces danger with great pain and reluctants.

It is not merely actions, but the attitude (pleasure or pains)

  that go along with it that display ones character.

Virtues are inherently tied to feelings, and feelings to pleasure and pain.

Virtue is responding to each in an appropriate way.

A man who flies from danger is not necessarily a coward. (If the danger he flies from is sufficient to provoke that response)

Definition of Virtue

Necessarily states of the soul, either:

1 Emotions  - Don't  carry with them any moral Judgment !

(No one is judged for their feelings, so long as they are justified)

- An angry man isn't considered bad so long his anger is justified.

2 Capacities - Don't deal with morals !

(No one is judged for their capacity for emotion, so long as they control it)

- No man is said to be bad because he is capable of extreme anger.

3 Dispositions - Can and do carry moral weight !!!

(Someone would be judged based on how prone they are to certain feelings or actions)

- Someone with a disposition towards anger, who becomes angry at the slites provocation , could and would be considered bad.

Virtues then, are dispositions.

A good disposition is one that makes its subject good, and causes him to live well.

This is accomplished by "aiming for the mean" 
- A state in between excess and deficiency.

Vices

- When there is a danger...  1 excesive fear or deficient breavery - coward (Vice)
                    2 ignoring danger  entirely , too much breavery -  rush (Vice)
3 Courage a propriate amount of fear and breavery !!!
Average place lies somewhere between Rushnes and Cowardnes
It depends of situation
Morality exists on a sliding scale, changing based on the situation.

Some things are, by definition good or bad
(Malice, shameless, jealousy, benevalence, adoltery, theft, murder ) - By definition evil.

Excess or deficiency - Shamelessness
Breaking laws, contract , promises -  Murder, theft, adoltery

Whether it be because the thing itself is by definition an excess or deficiency, or it is something that is simply wrong, with no mean to observe.

Moral virtue as a mean

Practical advice on finding the middle ground

1 Steer away from the extreme that most opposes the mean 

2 Recognize your weaknesses, and steer away from errors you are prone to making

3 Be wary when pleasure is on the line, it makes us to stupid things

Overindulgence         Temperates         Underendolgence