Comments about the book "The Ethics of Aristotle - The Nicomachean Ethics" by Aristotle

This document contains comments about the book: "The Ethics of Aristotle - The Nicomachean Ethics" by Aristotle. Pinguin Classics 1979
In the last paragraph I explain my own opinion.

Contents

Reflection

Introduction - page 9

The Ethics

Book one - The Object of Life - page 63

Every rational activity aims at some end or good. One end (like one activity) may be subordinate to another.

I. Every art and every investigation, and similarly every action and persuit, is considered to aim at some good.
That is a perfect description of our every day life and activities.

page 73

What is Good for man? It must be the ultimate and or object of human life: something that is in itself completely satisfying. Happiness fits this decription.

What, then, is the good of each particular one?
Okay.
Surely it is that for the sake of which everything else is done.
Okay.
In medecine this is health; in strategy, victory; in architecture, a building - different things in different arts, but in every action or pursuit it is the end, since it is for the sake of this, that every thing else is done.
A beautiful sequence of logical reasoning.
We must try, however, to make our meaning still clearer.
Brilliant

Book Two - Moral Goodness - page 91

page 93

In a practical science, so much depends on particular circumstances that only general rules can be given

Book Three - Moral Responsibility - Two Virtues - page 111

Book Four - Other moral virtues - page 142

Liberality: the right attitude towards money

Let us next speak about liberality.

Book Five - Justice - page 171

Reflection 1 - General

Dear Reader, This is not a Book Review in its normal sense. The problem is that the book "Etics" is such a special book, that my only advice is to read the book slowly, try to grasp it and let its whole contents slowly tickle down to all the memory cells in our brains. Just by reading the Contents you get a good idea, what the book is all about.
The primary reason why this is such a special book is that it discusses all the subjects using one common philosophy. When you take any line in the book the concepts used are defined and explained in the previous part of the book. In many cases the specific line defines a new concept. The following lines give more detail. In the final part of the book the concept is used assuming that the reader is now familiar with its meaning.
All of this is an excellent approach.

My main task is only to highlight certain reasoning based on more recent situations.

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Created: 2 May 2019

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