Review of Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics

Aristole’s Nichomachean Ethics is a critically acclaimed piece of literature that has laid the framework for philosophy as we know it today. It is considered to be a historical piece that was the first to address ethics in a unified, clear, and concise manner. The book was translated by F. H. Peters with an introduction by Hye-Kyung Kim. Aristotle was one of the great early philosophers who ventured to speak to humans about how they conducted themselves as they related to others; however, some of Aristotle’s ideologies were debated by his counterparts for hundreds of years. Aristotle’s plethora of ideas was and has been adopted by past and present philosophers as they approached subject matter that had very few definitive answers. Aristotle was born in circa 384 B. C. and died in 322 B.C.

According to Kim’s introduction, Aristotle considered ethics to be the “art of living well.” His writings reflected a perpetual quest to gain a better understanding of human character and how it is intertwined with virtues that are the impetus for human happiness. Aristotle has been deemed the writer of the first “systematic treatise” on ethics. He was essentially the first person to approach ethics from a more organized and deeper perspective. The book is divided into to sub-topics, and each human characteristic is examined and dissected without the constraints of a rigorous rule book. His teleological view of human life originates from his Greek background. He strongly supported the theory that there is an end or fulfillment that should be pursued by each individual. His theories are not as prominent in today’s world, but they are still considered the capstone for the discipline of philosophy.

He attempts to find the correl...

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...mbraced categorically.

Aristotle’s scholarly projections were not cursory overviews of the dynamics of the human quest for good over evil. He establishes his theory and gives several explanations, examples, and analogies that support his theory. Nichomachean Ethics explains the particulars of interactions with others, and it encourages the reader to examine himself. Evidence and traces of Aristotlian Nichomachean Ethics can be seen throughout All The President’s Men. Most human’s have the desire to reach a place of fulfillment or the “end” as described in the book. Aristotle has given us a guide book to better understand how we act and react. There are critics who disagree with some of his findings, but they do acknowledge that this piece of literature is a remarkable book that has allowed some to make strides in the interdisciplinary field of philosophy.