The Nicomachean Ethics

Author Aristotle
Introduction by Jonathan Barnes
Translated by J. A. K. Thomson
Revised by Hugh Tredennick
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"One swallow does not make a summer; neither does one day. Similarly neither can one day, or a brief space of time, make a man blessed and happy" 

Previously published as Ethics, Aristotle's The Nicomachean Ethics addresses the question of how to live well and originates the concept of cultivating a virtuous character as the basis of his ethical system. Here Aristotle sets out to examine the nature of happiness, and argues that happiness consists in 'activity of the soul in accordance with virtue', including moral virtues, such as courage, generosity and justice, and intellectual virtues, such as knowledge, wisdom and insight. The Ethics also discusses the nature of practical reasoning, the value and the objects of pleasure, the different forms of friendship, and the relationship between individual virtue, society and the State. Aristotle's work has had a profound and lasting influence on all subsequent Western thought about ethical matters. 

This Penguin Classics edition is translated from the Greek by J.A.K. Thomson with revisions and notes by Hugh Tredennick, and an introduction and bibliography by Jonathan Barnes. 

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Aristotle was born at Stageira, in the dominion of the kings of Macedonia, in 384 BCE. For 20 years he studied at Athens in the Academy of Plato, on whose death in 347 he left, and, sometime later, became tutor of the young Alexander the Great. When Alexander succeeded to the throne of Macedonia in 335, Aristotle returned to Athens and established his school and research institute, the Lyceum, to which his great erudition attracted a large number of scholars. After Alexander's death in 323, anti-Macedonian feeling drove Aristotle out of Athens, and he fled to Chalcis in Euboea, where he died in 322. His writings, which were of extraordinary range, profoundly affected the whole course of ancient and medieval philosophy, and they are still eagerly studied and debated by philosophers today. Very many of them have survived and among the most famous are the Ethics and the Politics. View titles by Aristotle
The Nicomachean EthicsPreface
Chronology
Introduction
Further Reading
A Note on the Text
Synopsis

The Nicomachean Ethics
Book I: The Object of Life
Book II: Moral Goodness
Book III: Moral Responsibility: Two Virtues
Book IV: Other Moral Virtues
Book V: Justice
Book VI: Intellectual Virtues
Book VII: Continence and Incontinence: THe Nature of Pleasure
Book VIII: The Kinds of Friendship
Book IX: The Grounds of Friendship
Book X: Pleasure and the Life of Happiness

Appendix 1: Table of Virtues and Vices
Appendix 2: Pythagoreanism
Appendix 3: The Sophists and Socrates
Appendix 4: Plato's Theory of Forms
Appendix 5: The Catagories
Appendix 6: Substance and Change
Appendix 7: Nature and Theology
Appendix 8: The Practical Syllogism
Appendix 9: Pleasure and Process
Appendix 10: Liturgies
Appendix 11: Aristotle in the Middle Ages

Glossary of Greek Words
Index of Names
Subject Index

About

"One swallow does not make a summer; neither does one day. Similarly neither can one day, or a brief space of time, make a man blessed and happy" 

Previously published as Ethics, Aristotle's The Nicomachean Ethics addresses the question of how to live well and originates the concept of cultivating a virtuous character as the basis of his ethical system. Here Aristotle sets out to examine the nature of happiness, and argues that happiness consists in 'activity of the soul in accordance with virtue', including moral virtues, such as courage, generosity and justice, and intellectual virtues, such as knowledge, wisdom and insight. The Ethics also discusses the nature of practical reasoning, the value and the objects of pleasure, the different forms of friendship, and the relationship between individual virtue, society and the State. Aristotle's work has had a profound and lasting influence on all subsequent Western thought about ethical matters. 

This Penguin Classics edition is translated from the Greek by J.A.K. Thomson with revisions and notes by Hugh Tredennick, and an introduction and bibliography by Jonathan Barnes. 

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Author

Aristotle was born at Stageira, in the dominion of the kings of Macedonia, in 384 BCE. For 20 years he studied at Athens in the Academy of Plato, on whose death in 347 he left, and, sometime later, became tutor of the young Alexander the Great. When Alexander succeeded to the throne of Macedonia in 335, Aristotle returned to Athens and established his school and research institute, the Lyceum, to which his great erudition attracted a large number of scholars. After Alexander's death in 323, anti-Macedonian feeling drove Aristotle out of Athens, and he fled to Chalcis in Euboea, where he died in 322. His writings, which were of extraordinary range, profoundly affected the whole course of ancient and medieval philosophy, and they are still eagerly studied and debated by philosophers today. Very many of them have survived and among the most famous are the Ethics and the Politics. View titles by Aristotle

Table of Contents

The Nicomachean EthicsPreface
Chronology
Introduction
Further Reading
A Note on the Text
Synopsis

The Nicomachean Ethics
Book I: The Object of Life
Book II: Moral Goodness
Book III: Moral Responsibility: Two Virtues
Book IV: Other Moral Virtues
Book V: Justice
Book VI: Intellectual Virtues
Book VII: Continence and Incontinence: THe Nature of Pleasure
Book VIII: The Kinds of Friendship
Book IX: The Grounds of Friendship
Book X: Pleasure and the Life of Happiness

Appendix 1: Table of Virtues and Vices
Appendix 2: Pythagoreanism
Appendix 3: The Sophists and Socrates
Appendix 4: Plato's Theory of Forms
Appendix 5: The Catagories
Appendix 6: Substance and Change
Appendix 7: Nature and Theology
Appendix 8: The Practical Syllogism
Appendix 9: Pleasure and Process
Appendix 10: Liturgies
Appendix 11: Aristotle in the Middle Ages

Glossary of Greek Words
Index of Names
Subject Index