\'The Ethics of Aristotle\' is a philosophical work by the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle. This foundational text in Western philosophy is part of Aristotle's larger body of work on ethics and moral philosophy. The primary work dealing with ethics is often referred to as \'Nicomachean Ethics\' because it is believed to have been dedicated to Aristotle's son, Nicomachus.In \'The Ethics of Aristotle,\' Aristotle explores questions related to the nature of virtue, ethics, and the good life. The work is divided into ten books, and Aristotle addresses various topics, including the nature of virtue, the concept of the mean, the role of pleasure and friendship, and the importance of moral education.Key elements of Aristotle's ethical philosophy include:1. Virtue Ethics: Aristotle focuses on virtue as a central concept, arguing that the development of virtuous character traits leads to a flourishing and morally good life.2. The Doctrine of the Mean: Aristotle introduces the idea that virtues lie between extremes and that moral virtue consists of finding the mean between excess and deficiency.3. Eudaimonia (Flourishing or Well-being): Aristotle argues that the highest good is eudaimonia, often translated as flourishing or well-being. Eudaimonia is achieved through the cultivation of virtue and the realization of one's full potential as a human being.Aristotle's ethical teachings have had a profound and lasting impact on Western philosophy, influencing thinkers throughout history. His exploration of virtue ethics and the concept of eudaimonia continues to be studied and discussed in contemporary philosophical discourse.
A corroboration of what I have said is the fact, that the young come to be geometricians, and mathematicians, and Scientific in such matters, but it is not thought that a young man can come to be possessed of Practical Wisdom: now the reason is, that this Wisdom has for its object particular facts, which come to be known from experience, which a young man has not because it is produced only by length of time. By the way, a person might also enquire, why a boy may be made a mathematician but not Scientific or a natural philosopher. Is not this the reason? that mathematics are taken in by the process of abstraction, but the principles of Science and natural philosophy must be gained by experiment; and the latter young men talk of but do not realise, while the nature of the former is plain and clear.
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Again, in matter of practice, error attaches either to the general rule, in the process of deliberation, or to the particular fact: for instance, this would be a general rule, All water of a certain gravity is bad; the particular fact, this water is of that gravity. And that Practical Wisdom is not Knowledge is plain, for it has to do with the ultimate issue, as has been said, because every object of action is of this nature. To Intuition it is opposed, for this takes in those principles which cannot be proved by reasoning, while Practical Wisdom is concerned with the ultimate particular fact which cannot be realised by Knowledge but by Sense; I do not mean one of the five senses, but the same by which we take in the mathematical fact, that no rectilineal figure can be contained by less than three lines, i.e. that a triangle is the ultimate figure, because here also is a stopping point. This however is Sense rather than Practical Wisdom, which is of another kind.
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Chapter IX. Now the acts of enquiring and deliberating differ, though deliberating is a kind of enquiring. We ought to ascertain about Good Counsel likewise what it is, whether a kind of Knowledge, or Opinion, or Happy Conjecture, or some other kind of faculty. Knowledge it obviously is not, because men do not enquire about what they know, and Good Counsel is a kind of deliberation, and the man who is deliberating is enquiring and calculating. Neither is it Happy Conjecture; because this is independent of reasoning, and a rapid operation; but men deliberate a long time, and it is a common saying that one should execute speedily what has been resolved upon in deliberation, but deliberate slowly. Quick perception of causes again is a different faculty from good counsel, for it is a species of Happy Conjecture. Nor is Good Counsel Opinion of any kind.
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Well then, since he who deliberates ill goes wrong, and he who deliberates well does so rightly, it is clear that Good Counsel is rightness of some kind, but not of Knowledge nor of Opinion: for Knowledge cannot be called right because it cannot be wrong, and Rightness of Opinion is Truth: and again, all which is the object of opinion is definitely marked out. Still, however, Good Counsel is not independent of Reason, Does it remain then that it is a rightness of Intellectual Operation simply, because this does not amount to an assertion; and the objection to Opinion was that it is not a process of enquiry but already a definite assertion; whereas whosoever deliberates, whether well or ill, is engaged in enquiry and calculation.
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