Nicomachean Ethics (eBook)

Aristotle (384–322 BCE) stands as a towering figure in ancient Greek philosophy, making contributions to logic, metaphysics, mathematics, physics, biology, botany, ethics, politics, agriculture, medicine, dance and theatre. He was a student of Plato and later tutored Alexander the Great. Aristotle's prolific body of work includes approximately 200 works, of which around 31 survive in treatises and notes that have laid the groundwork for various disciplines (Barnes, 1984). Among the most notable of his treatises is the 'Nicomachean Ethics,' a seminal work in the field of ethics that remains a central text in the philosophical canon (Crisp, 2000). The work elucidates the concept of virtue ethics, a cornerstone in the study of moral philosophy, and articulates the notion of eudaimonia—often translated as happiness or flourishing—as the aim of human life. In addition to his ethical inquiries, Aristotle was known for his 'Poetics,' where he delineates the principles of dramatic theory and literary criticism, and his 'Politics,' a compilation of his views on the nature of the state and political community (Reeve, 1998). His contributions span from practical ethics to the most abstract metaphysical theories. Aristotle's deductive system of logic, sometimes known as Aristotelian logic, had been the dominant system of logic until 19th century advances in logical theory. Hailed as the 'father of logic,' as well as biology, Aristotle crafted a legacy that endures in the intellectual traditions of the West and continues to influence various fields of contemporary philosophy.