Lying In Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics

Aristotle was born in 384 B.C.E in the Macedonian city of Stagirus. At Seventeen when his father died he went to study with Plato in Athens. Aristotle studied with Plato for twenty years until Plato’s death. Then Aristotle became a tutor to a young Alexander, who later was to be known as Alexander the Great. Aristotle studied and wrote on many subjects. No one person has ever founded and advanced so many fields of learning. Aristotle wrote separate treaties on physics, biology, logic, psychology, rhetoric, metaphysics, aesthetics, literary criticism, and political science (Shaw, 2014).

Thought to be named after Aristotle’s son, Nicomachean Ethics is a classic in the history of philosophy (Shaw, 2014). Nicomachean Ethics is a series of

That is not to say that what is moral is set in stone. In order for human beings to find the correct response we need to first look at the particular set of circumstances we find ourselves in. So for example, is lying immoral and therefore unvirtuous? In today’s society we have the belief that lying is morally wrong, that is the set of circumstance we are in. Next we would look at what a well-respected person believes on the subject Bill Gates a well-respected business man would say that lying is morally wrong. The concept regarding telling the truth and where we find the mean is, the defect would be lying, the mean would be telling the truth, and excess would overstating the truth. So the practical wisdom is that humans should tell the

For an action to be considered as voluntary we must say that its principle, i.e. its cause is within the agent that performed it and that it is not caused by ignorance. And if an action is not considered voluntary, it is because its cause is external to the agent or because it is caused by ignorance (Espindala, n.d.). These distinctions are important in finding the morally correct action because it allows for change in what human beings find as a morally good action, such as views on slavery. Aristotle lived in a time where slavery was morally neutral, however I would say that this view of slavery is external to the agent, or caused by ignorance.

Through compilation of practical wisdom and The Doctrine of Mean, and voluntary or involuntary actions, in Aristotle’s view human beings can find the goodness of any action, and therefore find the correct virtue or response of a circumstance. Though Aristotle made his arguments in ancient times we as modern human beings can use his ideas on ethics as a guide post to find the morally correct action. Just as we use ancient ideas of government, such as democracy. We today have adapted democracy from what ancient Greeks used, we can adapt Aristotle’s ideas to fit into modern