Discussing Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics

In philosophy, there are many interpretations as to what ethics are correct for that time frame. One such form of ethics was Nicomachean ethics, written by Aristotle. With his ethics, Aristotle goes to great lengths to explain, for the most part, why humanity does what it does in a reasonable and rational manner. He goes over what “good” is, and why people strive to get to that “good”. However, there are some problems that arise when trying to discuss Aristotle’s ethics. Both those problems and what Aristotle was trying to say will be discussed in this. In his book, Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle describes “good” as having many meanings. He first talks of good in terms of material wealth, but he then says that that form of good isn’t the one

He used opportunity as one of his examples, but learning works just as well. Learning is in sciences, like learning just how something functions. Learning is found in medicine, by learning how ailment or cure acts in a human body. Aristotle then talks of the Pythagoreans and the Platonists with their views on the universal good. However, they focus more so on the plural form of good, while Aristotle talks of the singular form of good. This form of good is used to talk of goods that are loved for the goods themselves. He then says that goods should be called two separate things, the goods that are good for their uses, and the other being the goods that are good by themselves. Aristotle then asks if the goods that are good by themselves are called good merely because of a singular idea. What things would people call good by themselves? Aristotle asks if things that are pursued even when alone and isolated, things like intelligence and pleasure, would be considered for this. He then says that, on the other hand, it could be nothing more than the idea of good itself, which would be considered empty. However, he then backtracks slightly, saying that if what the attributes he had said before had good in them, that the account of good would be similar between each of