Nicomachean Ethics

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This guy's an idiot. This is how the average person thinks the world works. Instead of using any real logic he manipulates his conclusions by making random analogies and makes judgemental statements without defining his terms. Every sentence contains a huge gap in logic. ( )

H1.31.6

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Anyone can get angry—that is easy—or give or spend money; but to do this to the right person,
to the right extent, at the right time, with the right motive, and in the right way, that is not for everyone, nor is it easy; wherefore goodness is both rare and laudable and noble.

The Oxford edition of The Nicomachean Ethics uses a revised version David Ross's truly readable translation. The notes are extremely helpful in elucidating Aristotle's sometimes tedious arguments around virtue, happiness, pleasure, and friendship. His conception of phronesis ("practical wisdom") is key in knowing the right thing to do and what leads happiness, which for Aristotle consists in excellence in activity directed by reason. In order to the right thing, we must know what the right thing is, choose it because it because it's the right thing, and act from a firm and unchanging good character. Easier said than done.

Aristotle thinks it's difficult to find “what is intermediate in passions and in actions." He argues that grasping the mean course of action is not for everyone, making virtue "rare and laudable and noble." One must always aim for what is intermediate and away from the extremes of the passions if one hopes to be virtuous, but this intermediate is often hard to identify or attain precisely in all situations, so we have to “incline sometimes towards the excess, sometimes towards the deficiency; for so shall we most easily hit the intermediate and what is right" – no easy task, indeed. Additionally, because childhood is where much of virtuous behavior is formed, if one is raised poorly or wickedly, one is put at an even larger disadvantage. Aristotle argues that it makes all the difference whether a person is raised properly to form virtuous habits in their youth, thus increasing the difficulty for many to become good people.

Anyone who's interested in ethical theory and how to live would do well to read Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, especially this helpful and easy to read edition. ( )