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Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics Paper

636 Words3 Pages
Being that most people spend the majority of their life surrounded by other people, it is crucial we understand our place among them. A good part of Aristotle’s, Nicomachean Ethics, is focused on the individual and how your actions affect your ultimate happiness. Books VIII and IX focus on friendship and how the union between you and another can affect your happiness. In this paper I will be discussing how friendship relates to happiness, how we must live with others, and briefly how Aristotle thinks friendship is helpful in situations not related to virtue. Earlier on in Chapter XIII Aristotle explains to the audience why we need friendship. He discusses that nobody wishes to be alone; even the rich need friendship because it prevents them
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In Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, he outlines the different scenarios in which one is responsible for her actions.  There is, however, a possible objection which raises the possibility that nobody is responsible for their actions.  Are we responsible for some of our actions after all?   If so, under what circumstances?

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Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics begins by exploring ‘the good’. Book I argues that, unlike other goods, “happiness appears to be something complete and self-sufficient, and is, therefore, the end of actions” (10:1097b20-21). In other words, happiness is the ultimate good. But how does one achieve happiness? Aristotle formulates this in the context of work, since for all things, from artists to horses, “the good and the doing it well seem to be in the work” (10:1097b27-28).

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Aristotle uses a “two step formula” to explore this concept. The first step is to isolate and determine what human’s distinctive function is. To explore human’s happiness, it is crucial to explore the manifestation of human nature. What makes humans humans? What are the distinctive activities and functions that we perform that brings us goodness and happiness?

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According to Aristotle’s writing called, Nicomachean Ethics, all actions performed by humans aim to gain happiness, happiness is the ultimate end, and that happiness is greatly determined by moral and intellectual virtues. However, I will discuss how some believe that his doctrine of the mean lacks the direction of how one achieves equilibrium of the virtues. In addition, I will explain how Aristotle’s ethics, in fact, does give sufficient advice of how a person can live virtuously. Firstly, Aristotle

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In Nicomachean Ethics V, Aristotle addresses the many kinds of justice. One justice that Aristotle points out is call, rectificatory justice, which involves voluntary transactions like trade or involuntary transactions like theft. This is settled in court where the judge ensures both parties get equal gains or losses. “The law only looks to the difference made by injury and treats the parties as equals,— since this kind of injustice is an inequality the judge tries to equalize it”(Nicomachean Ethics 87). Aristotle, provides an example of voluntarily buying or selling something, or any other transaction were someone gains something while the other loses or doesn’t gain anything.

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Friendships are complex relationships, but I would agree will Aristotle that there are three broad categories for friendships: utility, pleasure and virtue. However, I do not believe that these categories are mutually exclusive. Instead, I believe that friendships can be categorized into subcategories, where they can have characteristics from both utility and pleasure. The only pure type of friendship is a virtuous one because this is about caring for the other person’s well being, and not about superficial characteristics. Aristotle believes that this is the only type of friendship that can contribute Eudaimonia, and that utility and pleasure friendships are not essential to a person’s personal happiness.

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Aristotle argues that friendships are required to meet the conditions needed to live the most fulfilling life. His idea of friendship goes along the basics as ‘getting along with’ such as you would with neighbours or say you and the staff in your local coffee shop. What counts as friendship is goodwill that is directed towards each other. For example, awareness of the relationship and the relationship must be mutual. Looking through Nicomachean Ethics book VIII and IX, this essay will discuss just how this takes place through the interpersonal relationships of Humbert and Haze, Humbert and Dolores, Annabel Leigh and Humbert and Humbert and Valeria from the novel ‘Lolita’ (Vladimir Nabokov, 1955) and the film adaptation (Adrian Lyne, 1997).

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In this essay, I will be discussing Aristotle’s conception of the “good life” which he outlined in the Nicomachean Ethics. As we will see, the “good life” for man according to Aristotle is one where we perform the particular activity which is distinctly ours and guides us towards eudaimonia – sometimes translated as ‘happiness’ or ‘well-being’. He shows us how the other conflicting depictions of the ‘good life’ are misguided, and how we should aim for a life of reason. First, however, I will discuss briefly what Aristotle meant by the term ‘good’ and then move on to how he arrived at the conclusion on human happiness. Aristotle believes that the ‘good life’ for a particular organism depends on what that organism is and the conditions it requires

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