Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle IndexThe Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle translated by William David Ross [1908] Title Page Book I: The Good for Man Chapter 1. All human activities aim at some good: some goods subordinate to others Chapter 2. The science of the good for man is politics Chapter 3. We must not expect more precision than the subject-matter admits. The student should have reached years of discretion Chapter 4. The good is generally agreed to be happiness, but there are various views as to what happiness is. What is required at the start is an unreasoned conviction about the facts, such as is produced by a good upbringing Chapter 5. Discussion of the popular views that the good is pleasure, honour, wealth; a fourth kind of life, that of contemplation, deferred for future discussion Chapter 6. Discussion of the philosophical view that there is an Idea of good Chapter 7. The good must be something final and self-sufficient. Definition of happiness reached by considering the characteristic function of man Chapter 8. This definition is confirmed by current beliefs about happiness Chapter 9. Is happiness acquired by learning or habituation, or sent by God or by chance?-- Chapter 10. Should no man be called happy while he lives? Chapter 11. Do the fortunes of the living affect the dead? Chapter 12. Virtue is praiseworthy, but happiness is above praise Chapter 13. Division of the faculties, and resultant division of virtue into intellectual and moral Book II: Moral Virtue Chapter 1. Moral virtue, like the arts, is acquired by repetition of the corresponding acts Chapter 2. These acts cannot be prescribed exactly, but must avoid excess and defect Chapter 3. Pleasure in doing virtuous acts is a sign that the virtuous disposition has been acquired: a variety of considerations show the essential connexion of moral virtue with pleasure and pain Chapter 4. The actions that produce moral virtue are not good in the same sense as those that flow from it: the latter must fulfil certain conditions not necessary in the case of the arts Chapter 5. Moral virtue's genus: it is a state of character, not a passion nor a faculty Chapter 6. Its differentia: it is a disposition to choose the mean Chapter 7. This proposition illustrated by reference to the particular virtues Chapter 8. The extremes are opposed to each other and the mean Chapter 9. The mean is hard to attain, and is grasped by perception, not by reasoning Book III: Moral Virtue Chapter 1. Praise and blame attach to voluntary actions, i.e. actions done (1) not under compulsion, and (2) with knowledge of the circumstances Chapter 2. Moral virtue implies that the action is done (3) by choice; the object of choice is the result of previous deliberation Chapter 3. The nature of deliberation and its objects: choice is the deliberate desire of things in our own power Chapter 4. The object of rational wish is the end, i.e. the good or the apparent good Chapter 5. We are responsible for bad as well as for good actions Chapter 6. Courage concerned with the feelings of fear and confidence--strictly speaking, with the fear of death in battle Chapter 7. The motive of courage is the sense of honour: characteristics of the opposite vices, cowardice and rashness Chapter 8. Five kinds of courage improperly so called Chapter 9. Relation of courage to pain and pleasure Chapter 10. Temperance is limited to certain pleasures of touch Chapter 11. Characteristics of temperance and its opposites, self-indulgence and 'insensibility' Chapter 12. Self-indulgence more voluntary than cowardice: comparison of the self-indulgent man to the spoilt child Book IV. Moral Virtue Chapter 1. Liberality, prodigality, meanness Chapter 2. Magnificence, vulgarity, niggardliness Chapter 3. Pride, vanity, humility Chapter 4. Ambition, unambitiousness, and the mean between them Chapter 5. Good temper, irascibility, inirascibility. Chapter 6. Friendliness, obsequiousness, churlishness Chapter 7. Truthfulness, boastfulness, mock-modesty Chapter 8. Ready wit, buffoonery, boorishness Chapter 9. Shame, bashfulness, shamelessness Book V. Moral Virtue Chapter 1. The just as the lawful (universal justice) and the just as the fair and equal (particular justice): the former considered Chapter 2. The latter considered: divided into distributive and rectificatory justice Chapter 3. Distributive justice, in accordance with geometrical proportion Chapter 4. Rectificatory justice, in accordance with arithmetical progression Chapter 5. Justice in exchange, reciprocity in accordance with proportion Chapter 6. Political justice and analogous kinds of justice Chapter 7. Natural and legal justice Chapter 8. The scale of degrees of wrongdoing Chapter 9. Can a man be voluntarily treated unjustly?... Chapter 10. Equity, a corrective of legal justice Chapter 11. Can a man treat himself unjustly Book VI. Intellectual Virtue Chapter 1. Reasons for studying intellectual virtue: intellect divided into the contemplative and the calculative Chapter 2. The object of the former is truth, that of the latter truth corresponding with right desire Chapter 3. Science--demonstrative knowledge of the necessary and eternal Chapter 4. Art--knowledge of how to make things Chapter 5. Practical wisdom--knowledge of how to secure the ends of human life Chapter 6. Intuitive reason--knowledge of the principles from which science proceeds Chapter 7. Philosophic wisdom--the union of intuitive reason and science Chapter 8. Relations between practical wisdom and political science Chapter 9. Goodness in deliberation, how related to practical wisdom Chapter 10. Understanding--the critical quality answering to the imperative quality practical wisdom Chapter 11. Judgement--right discrimination of the equitable: the place of intuition in morals Chapter 12. What is the use of philosophic and of practical wisdom?... Chapter 13. Relation of practical wisdom to natural virtue, moral virtue, and the right rule Book VII. Continence and Incontinence Chapter 1. Six varieties of character: method of treatment: current opinions Chapter 2. Contradictions involved in these opinions Chapter 3. Solution of the problem, in what sense the incontinent man acts against knowledge Chapter 4. Solution of the problem, what is the sphere of incontinence: its proper and its extended sense distinguished Chapter 5. Incontinence in its extended sense includes a brutish and a morbid form Chapter 6. Incontinence in respect of anger less disgraceful than incontinence proper Chapter 7. Softness and endurance: two forms of incontinence--weakness and impetuosity Chapter 8. Self-indulgence worse than incontinence Chapter 9. Relation of continence to obstinancy, incontinence, 'insensibility', temperence Chapter 10. Practical wisdom is not compatible with incontinence, but cleverness is Chapter 11. Three views hostile to pleasure, and the arguments for them Chapter 12. Discussion of the view that pleasure is not a good Chapter 13. Discussion of the view that pleasure is not the chief good Chapter 14. Discussion of the view that most pleasures are bad, and of the tendency to identify bodily pleasures with pleasure in general Book VIII. Friendship Chapter 1. Friendship both necessary and noble: main questions about it Chapter 2. Three objects of love: implications of friendship Chapter 3. Three corresponding kinds of friendship: superiority of friendship whose motive is the good Chapter 4. Contrast between the best and the inferior kinds Chapter 5. The state of friendship distinguished from the activity of friendship and from the feeling of friendliness Chapter 6. Various relations between the three kinds Chapter 7. In unequal friendships a proportion must be maintained Chapter 8. Loving is more of the essence of friendship than being loved Chapter 9. Parallelism of friendship and justice: the state comprehends all lesser communities Chapter 10. Classification of constitutions: analogies with family relations Chapter 11. Corresponding forms of friendship, and of justice Chapter 12. Various forms of friendship between relations Chapter 13. Principles of interchange of services (a) in friendship between equals Chapter 14. (b) In friendship between unequals Book IX. Friendship Chapter 1. (c) In friendship in which the motives on the two sides are different Chapter 2. Conflict of obligations Chapter 3. Occasions of breaking off friendship Chapter 4. Friendship is based on self-love Chapter 5. Relation of friendship to goodwill Chapter 6. Relation of friendship to unanimity Chapter 7. The pleasure of beneficence Chapter 8. The nature of true self-love Chapter 9. Why does the happy man need friends? Chapter 10. The limit to the number of friends Chapter 11. Are friends more needed in good or in bad fortune? Chapter 12. The essence of friendship is living together Book X. Pleasure. Happiness. Chapter 1. Two opposed views about pleasure Chapter 2. Discussion of the view that pleasure is the good Chapter 3. Discussion of the view that pleasure is wholly bad Chapter 4. Definition of pleasure Chapter 5. Pleasures differ with the activities which they accompany and complete: criterion of the value of pleasures Chapter 6. Happiness is a good activity, not amusement Chapter 7. Happiness in the highest sense is the contemplative life Chapter 8. Superiority of the contemplative life further considered Chapter 9. Legislation is needed if the end is to be attained: transition to Politics
