The Nicomachean Ethics

"Freedom is obedience to self-formulated rules."― Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics.

"Aristotle numbers among the greatest philosophers of all time. Judged solely in terms of his philosophical influence, only Plato is his peer." ― Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

"If Plato's prose was silver, Aristotle's was a flowing river of gold." ― Cicero.

Aristotle's The Nicomachean Ethics (sometimes known merely as Ethics) is one of the most influential works on ethics. It addresses the question of how to live well: It argues that the happy life, the flourishing life, is promoted by the pursuit of virtues. These he divides into virtues of the mind (including knowledge, wisdom and insight), which are learned, and virtues of the character (including courage, justice and generosity), which are gained by practice.  He explains that practical reasoning and friendship are essential to a flourishing life and that the highest form of friendship is based on the admiration of the virtues of the other. The Nicomachean Ethics, written over two millennia ago, has been a foundation for ethical thought. Thomas Aquinas referred to Aristotle as "The Philosopher" and incorporated his work into the Catholic worldview. More recently, the twentieth-century school of Virtue Ethics is closely allied with Aristotle's thought.

This edition of a classic work of philopophy

• contains an introduction,
• contains extensive explanatory notes, and
• is set in easy-to-read 11-point font.

Aristotle (384-322 B.C.E.) is among the greatest philosophers of all time. Judged solely in terms of his philosophical influence, only Plato is his peer.  His thought was original, profound, systematic and wide-ranging, including ethics, rhetoric, poetics, physics, metaphysics, and biology. It was incorporated into Catholic theology by Thomas Aquinas.  It was also the basis of Protestant ethics until well into the seventeenth century. Aristotle's works shaped centuries of philosophy from Late Antiquity through the Renaissance; even today, they continue to be keenly studied and debated.