Study
Questions for Aristotle’s Nicomachean
Ethics,Book I, Chapter IV-XII
After completing the questions for each chapter write down two examples from pop culture that you think personify Aristotle’s points. Be sure to include a brief explanation of each.
Chapter IV
After completing the questions for each chapter write down two examples from pop culture that you think personify Aristotle’s points. Be sure to include a brief explanation of each.
Chapter IV
- What
does Aristotle identify as “…the highest of all goods…”?
- What
point is Aristotle attempting to make in IV.3? How effective is he?
Chapter V
- How
does Aristotle view the relationship between pleasure and happiness?
- Why
does Aristotle hold virtue in greater esteem than honor?
- Why
does Aristotle dismiss wealth as a source of happiness?
Chapter
VI
- In
VI.3 Aristotle dissects the word ‘good’. What are the categories he creates?
Why does he do this?
- What
two meaning does he ascribe to good in VI.9?
Chapter VII
- From
chapter VII.3-VII.8 an argument for happiness as the final and self-sufficient
good is presented. Why does Aristotle come to this conclusion? How effectively
did he make his case?
- For
Aristotle is self-sufficient also exclusivist? Explain why or why not.
- Aristotle
seeks to ascertain “…what is man’s function” (VII.10). His discussion ranges
from VII.10-16. What does he conclude? How does he differentiate between what
people do and what they are?
Chapter
VIII
- What
do you understand the following quotes to mean?
- But
no doubt it makes a great difference whether we conceive the supreme good to
depend on possessing virtue or in displaying it – on disposition, or on the
manifestation of a disposition in action (VIII.9).
- Therefore
their life has no need of pleasure as a sort of ornamental appendage, but
contains its pleasure in itself (VIII.12).
Chapter IX
- Aristotle
concludes happiness is better if it is the result on one’s own effort and
concludes “it is reasonable to suppose that this is how happiness is won” (IX.5).
How did he reach this conclusion?
Chapter X
- In chapter X, particularly X.11-14, we see a discussion of how “the happy man” faces and endures times of misfortune and difficulty. Summarize Aristotle’s argument.
-
Chapter XII
- What
is the difference between praise and honour?
- What
criteria does Aristotle offer for using the word ‘blessing’?