The Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle

by William David Ross | 1908 | 86,435 words

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Summary: The "Nicomachean Ethics" by Aristotle is a seminal work on ethics exploring the science of the good for human life. It examines how best to live, aiming to provide practical guidance in achieving a virtuous life. This work, closely linked to Aristotle's "Eudemian Ethics," emphasizes ethics as practical, bridging the gap between theoretical inquiries and real-life applications. Aristotle's ethics is teleological, focusing on achieving eudaimonia, or flourishing, which he describes as the ultimate goal of human life. Eudaimonia is reached through virtuous actions and character development.

Aristotle distinguishes between intellectual virtues and virtues of character, which one develops through habit, aiming for the "golden mean" between excess and deficiency. He also explores different types of friendships and their importance in moral life. The "Nicomachean Ethics" has significantly influenced medieval and modern philosophy and remains crucial to discussions about virtue ethics today.

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Contents of this online book ( + / - )

The full text of the The Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle in English is available here and publically accesible (free to read online). Of course, I would always recommend buying the book so you get the latest edition. You can see all this book’s content by visiting the pages in the below index:

+ Book I: The Good for Man

. Chapter 1. All human activities aim at some good

. Chapter 2. The science of the good for man is politics

. Chapter 3. We must not expect more precision than the subject-matter admits

. Chapter 4. The good is generally agreed to be happiness

. Chapter 5. Discussion of the popular views that the good is pleasure, honour, wealth;

. 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

. Chapter 8. This definition is confirmed by current beliefs about happiness

. Chapter 9. Is happiness acquired by learning

. 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

. Chapter 13. Division of the faculties

+ Book II: Moral Virtue

. Chapter 1. Moral virtue

. Chapter 2. These acts cannot be prescribed exactly

. Chapter 3. Pleasure in doing virtuous acts is a sign that the virtuous disposition has been acquired

. Chapter 4. The actions that produce moral virtue are not good in the same sense as those that flow from it

. Chapter 5. Moral virtue's genus

. Chapter 6. Its differentia

. 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

+ Book III: Moral Virtue

. Chapter 1. Praise and blame attach to voluntary actions

. Chapter 2. Moral virtue

. Chapter 3. The nature of deliberation and its objects

. Chapter 4. The object of rational wish is the end

. Chapter 5. We are responsible for bad as well as for good actions

. Chapter 6. Courage concerned with the feelings of fear and confidence

. Chapter 7. The motive of courage is the sense of honour

. 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

. Chapter 12. Self-indulgence more voluntary than cowardice

+ 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)

. Chapter 2. The latter considered

. Chapter 3. Distributive justice

. Chapter 4. Rectificatory justice

. Chapter 5. Justice in exchange

. 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

. Chapter 11. Can a man treat himself unjustly

+ Book VI. Intellectual Virtue

. Chapter 1. Reasons for studying intellectual virtue

. Chapter 2. The object of the former is truth

. Chapter 3. Science--demonstrative knowledge of the necessary and eternal

. Chapter 4. Art--knowledge of how to make things

. Chapter 5. Practical wisdom

. Chapter 6. Intuitive reason

. Chapter 7. Philosophic wisdom

. Chapter 8. Relations between practical wisdom and political science

. Chapter 9. Goodness in deliberation

. Chapter 10. Understanding

. Chapter 11. Judgement--right discrimination of the equitable:

. Chapter 12. What is the use of philosophic and of practical wisdom?

. Chapter 13. Relation of practical wisdom to natural virtue

+ Book VII. Continence and Incontinence

. Chapter 1. Six varieties of character

. Chapter 2. Contradictions involved in these opinions

. Chapter 3. Solution of the problem

. Chapter 4. Solution of the problem

. Chapter 5. Incontinence in its extended sense

. Chapter 6. Incontinence in respect of anger

. Chapter 7. Softness and endurance

. Chapter 8. Self-indulgence worse than incontinence

. Chapter 9. Relation of continence to obstinancy

. Chapter 10. Practical wisdom is not compatible with incontinence

. Chapter 11. Three views hostile to pleasure

. 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

+ Book VIII. Friendship

. Chapter 1. Friendship both necessary and noble

. Chapter 2. Three objects of love

. Chapter 3. Three corresponding kinds of friendship

. Chapter 4. Contrast between the best and the inferior kinds

. Chapter 5. The state of friendship distinguished

. 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

. Chapter 10. Classification of constitutions

. Chapter 11. Corresponding forms of friendship

. 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

. Chapter 6. Happiness is a good activity

. 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

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Last Updated: 21 October, 2025

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