Nicomachean Ethics Rowe Qs Bk 1

Nicomachean EthicsNE 1.1

1. What is “the good,” according to Aristotle?

2. What is an “end,” in Aristotle’s sense of the term? What is a “mean”?

3. Are there different kinds of ends? If so, give examples.

4. Some ends are superior to others. Give an example.

NE 1.2 5. How does Aristotle define the Chief Good?

6. Explain the target analogy. What does this have to do with the Chief Good?

7. Explain why this book is a political inquiry and not just an ethics for the individual.

Nicomachean Ethics I 1

NE 1.3 8. Explain the following quote: “It is a mark of an educated person to look for

precision in each kind of inquiry just to the extent that the nature of the subject allows it.”

9. What is the relationship between politics and ethics?

10. What do inexperience and emotion have to do with learning politics and ethics?

NE 1.411. In a word, what is the highest good that all people seek?

12. Ordinary people say that happiness is

a.

b.

c.

13. What does it mean to say that in any field of study, we must begin with what is knowable to us?

14. Explain the following quote from Hesiod:

Best out of everyone he who himself sees all that concerns him; Excellent too is that man who listens to others’ good counsel. But the one who neither sees for himself, nor, hearing another, Takes the words to his heart—now that is a useless man.


NE 1.5 1. Three kinds of life are examined, as they reflect three views about what happiness

is (Aristotle rejects the first two and postpones discussion of the third.) Describe each of them, and for the first two explain why Aristotle rejects them as true happiness.

a. The life of pleasure.

i.

ii.

b. The political life, which is also the life of honor, or the life of excellence.

i.

ii.

c. The life of reflection.

2. Why can we dismiss the life of moneymaking out of hand?

NE 1.6 3. Describe Aristotle’s critique of the Platonic definition of ‘the Good’. (This item is

for class discussion.)


NE 1.7 1. Aristotle says that the good is different in different spheres. What does he mean

by this? You may answer by giving examples.

2. If the good is different in different spheres, then how is there a highest good?

3. Aristotle says, “…what is complete without qualification is what is always desirable in itself and never because of something else.” What does this mean? Give an example.

4. Aristotle discusses the concept of proper function. What is the proper function of a carpenter?

5. What is the proper function of a flute-player?

6. The proper function of a human being is not simply being alive. How do we know this?

7. The proper function of a human being is not the ability to perceive things. How do we know this?

8. What is the proper function of a human being?

9. “A single swallow does not make spring, nor does a single day; in the same way,

neither does a single day, or a short time, ______________________________.


NE 1.8 10. Aristotle divides goods into three categories. Create an example for each.

a.

b.

c.

11. What is the difference between a disposition and an activity? (Use a dictionary if necessary.)

12. Aristotle says that for most people, things are pleasant according to one’s disposition. What does this mean? Give an example.

13. Why do most people find that the things that are pleasant to them conflict with one another?

14. How is the “excellent” person different from most people, with regard to how he judges things to be fine or not fine, pleasant or unpleasant?

15. Aristotle says that happiness requires external goods. What particular ones does he mention?

a.b.c.d.e.f.

16. Why do people tend to confuse external goods and happiness?


Nicomachean EthicsNE 1.9

1. What are five different ideas about how we obtain happiness? (I’ll give you the first.)

a. It is something we learn.

b.

c.

d.

e.

2. Is happiness something you can learn, or is it only a gift?

3. How can adult humans be happy in a way that animals and children cannot be?

4. Who is king Priam, and what idea does he illustrate in NE?

a.

b.

NE 1.105. Why would someone be tempted to say that we must be dead before we can be

truly happy?

6. “Activities in accordance with excellence have great stability.” Explain.


7. How does the person of nobility, i.e., greatness of soul, bear with adversity? What does this have to do with happiness?

NE 1.11: Skip. NE 1.12: Skip.


Book 1, Chapters 5-10, pages 20-31

1. Explain what we mean when we say that the good will vary according to the circumstance.

2. Explain how some means are also ends.

3. Are more things ends, means, or both ends and means?

4. The final good is “that which is sought after for its own sake and not ____________________________.”

5. What exactly is the final good?

6. Honor, pleasure, intellect, and every virtue, are means to ______________.

7. Happiness is a means to ________________________.

8. Does humanity have a function?

9. Is the function of humanity best described as “life”? Why or why not?

10. Is the function of humanity best described as “a life of sensation”? Why or why not?

11. Aristotle says that the practical life may be conceived of in two ways: either as a moral state, or as a moral activity. What is the difference between these two things?

12. What is the function of man?

13. Can there be different degrees of excellence?

14. Aristotle says, “the good of Man is an activity of soul in accordance with the best and most complete virtue or, if there are more virtues than one, in accordance with the best and most complete virtue.” What does this mean?

15. Why must we speak of the virtue of a complete life, rather than the virtue of just a part of life?


16. Why do we need to consider popular views regarding first principles?

17. What three kinds of goods does Aristotle speak of? Which one has primacy?

18. How do the two subordinate goods relate to the primary good?

19. List four (more) different definitions of happiness.

20. Is the supreme good a moral state, or an activity? What is the difference between the state of something and an activity of something?

21. Aristotle says that some pleasures are not naturally pleasurable. What does this mean?

22. Are virtues naturally pleasurable?

23. Can any action be naturally pleasurable if it is not virtuous?

24. Does happiness require external goods?

25. Why, given your previous answer, do some people say that “the good” is the same thing as prosperity?

26. Is happiness a gift of the gods, or is it something we can learn?

27. What is Aristotle’s definition of happiness?

28. What are “antecedent conditions”? What are the antecedent conditions of happiness?

29. Aristotle uses king Priam as an example of something. What is that something?


Nicomachean EthicsBook 1, Chapters 11-13, pages 31-41

1. Explain the story of Solon, as found in Herodotus’ History.

2. Explain what does Aristotle thinks of Herodotus’ point, and how this contributes to Aristotle’s point.

3. How can the happiness of the dead be reversed?

4. How easily is the “happy man” made unhappy? What could make them unhappy? What could make the unhappy man happy?

5. Which is more stable, knowledge or character? What is the significant about this?

6. Explain why the happy man is incapable of misery. Is he capable of misfortune?

7. What is Aristotle’s definition of happiness, as given on page 35?

8. Which is more substantial, praise or honor?


9. What is the relationship between virtue and happiness?

10. Why do legislatures desire their citizens to be virtuous?

11. What is the difference between virtue of the soul and virtue of the body?

12. To what does Aristotle compare knowledge of the soul? Who most needs to have knowledge of the soul?

13. The soul has two basic parts. What are they?

14. The second part of the soul has two parts. Describe each of them.

15. The first part of the soul has two parts. Describe each of them.

16. What are the two categories of virtue? What parts of the soul do they correspond to?



1. How do we know that moral virtue is not something implanted by nature?

2. We become virtuous by _______________ virtuous.

3. How do we produce an art, or a virtue?

4. How do we destroy an art, or a virtue?

5. How do we cultivate virtue (or vice)?

6. Is the primary goal of Aristotle’s Ethics theoretical or practical? What does this mean?

7. Explain what excess, mean, and deficiency are.

a.

b.

c.

8. Know that EMD means, “excess, mean, deficiency.” (Memorize this.)

9. What is the relationship between pleasure/pain and virtue?

10. Are all pleasures good? Are they all bad? Are all pains bad? Are they all good? Explain.


11. What three things lead us to desire a virtue? (Explain each one briefly.) 48

a.

b.

c.

12. What three things lead us to eschew (shy away from; shun; disdain) a virtue?

a.

b.

c.

13. Why is good art always more difficult to produce than bad art? Is it the same with virtue/vice (that is, that virtue is always harder to develop than vice)?

14. For virtues to be in accordance with virtue, they must satisfy three conditions. What are these conditions? 50

a.

b.

c.

15. Explain the difference between emotions, faculties, and moral states. Which one do the virtues correspond to, and why? 51

a.

b.

c.

16. Is it always wrong to be angry? Explain how Aristotle would answer this question.



1. What is the difference between an absolute mean and a relative mean?

a.

b.

2. Experiencing emotions at the right times and occasions, toward the right people, and in the right way—this is ________________________________.

3. What is Aristotle’s definition of virtue on page 55?

4. The mean state lies between ___________________________.

5. List six actions or emotions that have no mean state, but are intrinsically wicked.

c.

d.

e.

f.

g.

h.

6. It is a general rule that an _______________ or a __________________ does not

admit of a ___________ state, nor a _____________ state of

___________________ or __________________.

7. On the back of this page is a chart displaying the relationships that exist between feelings, actions, excess, mean, and deficiency of particular virtues. Be able to match the words to their definitions, and then, given a list of the words/descriptions, to fill in the entire chart.

Some help with definitions (you are responsible for all the words on the chart): Intemperance: excessive indulgence; lack of self-controlTemperance: restraint in the face of temptation or desireExtravagance: excessive or wasteful spendingProdigality: extravagantly wastefulVanity: excessive prideApathy: lack of enthusiasm or energySelf-depreciation: belittling yourself or your achievementsBuffoonery: clowning, silly behaviorWittiness: using words in an apt, clever, and amusing wayBoorishness: rude, crass, or insensitive behaviorObsequiousness: excessive eagerness to please or to obey all instructions


Nicomachean Ethics Rowe Qs Bk 1

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