Nicomachean Ethics

Aristotle (Greek: ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿ Aristotél¿s, pronounced [aristotél¿¿s]; 384-322 BC)[A] was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Lyceum, the Peripatetic school of philosophy, and the Aristotelian tradition. His writings cover many subjects. including physics, biology, zoology, metaphysics, logic, ethics, estheticspoetry, theatre, music, rhetoric, psychology, linguistics, economics, politics, and government. Aristotle provided a complex synthesis of the various philosophies existing prior to him. It was above all from his teachings that the West inherited its intellectual lexicon, as well as problems and methods of inquiry. As a result, his philosophy has exerted a unique influence on almost every form of knowledge in the West and it continues to be a subject of contemporary philosophical discussion. Little is known about his life. Aristotle was born in the city of Stagira in Northern Greece. His father, Nicomachus, died when Aristotle was a child, and he was brought up by a guardian. At seventeen or eighteen years of age he joined Plato's Academy in Athens and remained there until the age of thirty-seven (c. 347 BC).[4] Shortly after Plato died, Aristotle left Athens and, at the request of Philip II of Macedon, tutored Alexander the Great beginning in 343 BC.[5] He established a library in the Lyceum which helped him to produce many of his hundreds of books on papyrus scrolls. Though Aristotle wrote many elegant treatises and dialogues for publication, only around a third of his original output has survived, none of it intended for publication.[6] Aristotle's views on physical science profoundly shaped medieval scholarship. Their influence extended from Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages into the Renaissance, and were not replaced systematically until the Enlightenment and theories such as classical mechanics. Some of Aristotle's zoological observations found in his biology, such as on the hectocotyl (reproductive) arm of the octopus, were disbelieved until the 19th century. His works contain the earliest known formal study of logic, studied by medieval scholars such as Peter Abelard and John Buridan. Aristotle's influence on logic also continued well into the 19th century.

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

From reviews of the First Edition: "This refreshingly contemporary translation of Bywater's text . . . is admirably successful in its stated aim of being 'clear and explicit enough to show how Aristotle's argument proceeds, in general and in detail, and at the same time literal enough to show what grounds the text offers for different lines of interpretation'. It uses current English idiom and style with skill throughout, incorporating smoothly the more traditional renderings of technical terms, and will serve a timely and important purpose in making Aristotle's Ethics attractive and enlightening to new readers." Joseph Owens, University of Toronto "The translation is highly readable. . . . It is also remarkably accurate and faithful to the Greek. . . . The Glossary, both Greek-English and English-Greek . . . offers, in addition to bare equivalences, a series of short essays on all the key terms in the Ethics . . . which are clear, well-reasoned, scrupulously fair, and packed with references to the text. . . . Every student who wishes to read the Ethics in English should go for Irwin's translationindeed, they could hardly hope for anything better." Jonathan Barnes, University of Oxford
"The translation is absolutely reliable and is supplemented with notes that highlight any and all possible problems. Rich and easy to use. I love that 40 pages of supplementary texts from Aristotle are included. . . . Sometimes new editions seem pointless. This is worth it!" James C. Klagge, Virginia Tech