Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics

In his philosophical novel, Nichomachean Ethics, Aristotle claims that “everything...must be measured by something...in truth this one thing is need”(1133a26-1133a28). He alleges that need keeps everyone and everything together. From this quotation, he goes further and claims that without that if people did not need things, then there would be no exchange of goods. In Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle argues that the exchange of goods and services keeps the city and the larger society together. Aristotle’s main idea in Nicomachean Ethics is that “reciprocal action governed by proportion keeps the city together”(Aristotle, C.J. Rowe, and Sarah Broadie 1133a1-1133a2). He believes that without some sort of equivalent exchange between or among inherently

They say that “the requirement then is that the builder receive from the shoemaker what the shoemaker produced, and that he himself give the shoemaker a share in his own product”(1133a7-1133a9). This notion relates back to Aristotle's ideas of equivalent exchange of goods and services as well as his notion of society needing exchange in order to function at all. According to Aristotle, Rowe, and Broadie, “If, then, there is first of all equality in proportional terms, and reciprocal exchange occurs after that, the stated requirement will be fulfilled, but if not, there is no equality, and there is nothing to keep the parties together”(1133a11-14). His fundamental argument is essentially that without exchange between or among unequal parties, there can be no such thing as society as there would be no incentive to help each other or even associate with someone who is societally lower than you. They argue that the exchange is not necessarily between two doctors, but more often, it is between a doctor and a farmer or, in general, two people of differing social classes, since they need to be equalized. Aristotle, Rowe, and Broadie believe that two people of equal social class do not become partners in an exchange, but “people who are of different sorts and not in relation of equality to each other; they therefore have to be equalized”(1133a18-1133a20). Since