Aristotle's ethics: writings from the complete works

523 Pages·4.001 MB·English

by  Aristotle, Barnes Jonathan;Editor, Kenny Anthony;Editor

A R I S T O T L E ’ S E T H I C S

A R I S T O T L E ’ S
E T H I C S
W R I T I N G S F R O M T H E
C O M P L E T E W O R K S
Revised, edited, and with an introduction by
J O N A T H A N B A R N E S
and
A N T H O N Y K E N N Y
Princeton University Press
Princeton and Oxford
Copyright © 2014 by The Jowett Copyright Trustees
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Aristotle.
[Works. Selections. English. 2014]
Aristotle’s ethics : the complete writings / edited by
Jonathan Barnes and Anthony Kenny.
pages cm
Includes indexes.
ISBN 978-0-691-15846-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Ethics—Early works to
1800. I. Barnes, Jonathan, 1942–editor of compilation. II. Kenny,
Anthony, 1931–editor of compilation. III. Title.
B407.B37 2014
171′.3—dc23 2013030226
British Library Cataloging- in- Publication Data is available
This book has been composed in MVB Verdigris
Pro, Lydian MT, and Syntax LT Std.
Printed on acid- free paper.
Printed in the United States of America
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
C O N T E N T S
INTRODUCTION 1
EUDEMIAN ETHICS 23
NICOMACHEAN ETHICS 207
MAGNA MORALIA 373
VIRTUES AND VICES 475
GLOSSARIES 485
INDEX OF NAMES 495
GENERAL INDEX 499

A R I S T O T L E ’ S E T H I C S

I N T R O D U C T I O N
Aristotle was born in 384 in the small township of
Stagira, in north- eastern Greece. His father, Nicomachus,
was a physician attached to the Macedonian court. At the
age of seventeen he moved south to Athens, and joined the
Academy, that brilliant band of philosophers, scientists,
mathematicians, and politicians which gathered in Athens
under Plato’s leadership. For twenty years he remained as
Plato’s pupil and colleague, and made a name for himself as
an industrious student, a vigorous polemicist, and an inde-
pendent thinker, with an early interest in rhetoric, logic,
metaphysics, and ethics.
In 359 King Philip II succeeded to the throne of Mace-
don. He adopted an expansionist policy, waged war on a
number of Greek city-s tates, and made himself master of
Greece. It cannot have been an easy time for a Macedonian
in Athens, though Aristotle remained on the warmest terms
with Plato, whom on his death in 347 he described as the
best and happiest of mortals ‘whom it is not right for evil
men even to praise’.
Once Plato was dead, however, Aristotle found it prudent
to emigrate. He settled in the eastern Aegean, first at Atar-
neus, then at Assos. Hermias, the ruler of Atarneus, was a
graduate of the Academy, and offered an intellectual home
to Aristotle and a few fellow- exiles. Aristotle later married
his adopted daughter.
During his period in Assos, and during the next few
years when he lived at Mytilene on the island of Lesbos, Ar-
istotle carried out extensive scientific research, particularly
in zoology and marine biology, whose results remained un-
rivalled for two millennia. Here Aristotle first worked with
Theophrastus, who was to become his successor and great-
est pupil.