The Nicomachean Ethics

by Aristotle Narrated by Wanda McCaddon

Overview

Named for Aristotle's son, Nicomachus, who was the first to edit this work, The Nicomachean Ethics plays a prominent role in defining Aristotelian ethics. In the ten books of this work, Aristotle explains the good life for man: the life of happiness.

For Aristotle, happiness exists when the soul is in accordance with virtue. Virtue exists in a deliberate choice of actions that take a middle course between excess and deficiency; this is the famous doctrine of the "golden mean." Courage, for example, is the mean between cowardice and rashness. Justice is the mean between a man's getting more or less than his due. The supreme happiness, according to Aristotle, is to be found in a life of philosophical contemplation or, at least, in a virtuous life of political activity and public munificence.

A student of Plato and a teacher of Alexander the Great, Aristotle is one of the towering figures in Western thought.

Editorial Reviews

University of Wisconsin Claudia Card

An essential classic in the field of ethics.”

Rochester Institute of Technology Dominic A. Aquila

Very useful as a cornerstone for our discussion of ethics and the Western moral tradition.”

From the Publisher

"Very useful as a cornerstone for our discussion of ethics and the Western moral tradition. The translation is elegant."—Dominic A. Aquila, Rochester Institute of Technology

"A fine translation of an essential classic in the field of ethics."—Claudia Card, University of Wisconsin

"The index is extremely helpful. The 'contents' are also a helpful tool. The numbering and division titles also make this book a little easier to teach."—Rose Marie Surwilo, College of St. Francis

"Very useful text of Aristotle: the translation presents no pitfalls to a beginning student; the editor's organization is useful but unitrusive; and finally, the cost is perfect."—Nickolas O. Papas, Hollins College

"An excellent translation and edition."—Winfield J.C. Myers, University of Georgia

"Most lucid and accessible edition popularly available."—John L. Hemingway, Washington State University

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169603828
Publisher:	Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Publication date:	01/01/2006
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

BOOK I
Chapter 1. Every art and every inquiry, and likewise every action and choice, seems to aim at some good, and hence it has been beautifully said that the good is that at which all things aim. But a certain difference is apparent among ends, since some are ways of being at work, while others are certain kinds of works produced, over and above the being-at-work. And in those cases in which there are ends of any kind beyond the actions, the works produced are by nature better things than the activities. And since there are many actions and arts and kinds of knowledge, the ends also turn out to be many: of medical knowledge the end is health, of shipbuilding skill it is a boat, of strategic art it is victory, of household management it is wealth. But in as many such pursuits as are under some one capacity—in the way that bridle making and all the other skills involved with implements pertaining to horses come under horsemanship, while this and every action pertaining to war come under strategic art, and in the same way other pursuits are under other capacities—in all of them the ends of all the master arts are more worthy of choice than are the ends of the pursuits that come under them, since these latter are pursued for the sake of those arts. And it makes no difference whether the ends of the actions are the ways of being at work themselves, or something else beyond these, as they are with the kinds of knowledge mentioned.

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