In Aristotle's Ethics: Moral Development and Human Nature, Hope May defends two main theses. Aristotle's ethics are the most important in the history of Western philosophy, but little has been said about the reception of his ethics by his many successors. It is fitting, therefore, that his moral philosophy is based around assessing the broad characters of human beings rather than assessing singular acts in isolation. Aristotle develops the doctrine of the mean in the course of his discussion of aretê, excellence or virtue, in Book II of the Nicomachean Ethics (see also Eudemian Ethics, Book II, chapters 3 and 5). In addition, Yu engages in some discussion of Socrates and Plato to put Aristotle into context. Philosophical ethics is the attempt to offer a rational response to the question of how humans should best live. There he writes that. 1. In these writings, he uses logic to determine a definition and the potential impacts of ethics. Sir Anthony Kenny presents a second edition of his landmark work The Aristotelian Ethics, which transformed Aristotle studies in 1978 by showing, on stylistic, historical, and philosophical grounds, that the Eudemian Ethics was a mature work with as strong a claim to be Aristotle's ethical masterpiece as the more widely studied Nicomachean Ethics. Aristotle's Ethics. Although it is a matter of dispute, the NE is widely believed to be the most definitive account of … On the Aristotelian side, Yu focuses on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics (NE), though he makes some use of Eudemian Ethics and Magna Moralia, along with other works from Aristotle, where appropriate. Aristotle first used the term ethics to name a field of study developed by his predecessors Socrates and Plato. Video of Philosopher and educator Mortimer Adler discussing Aristotle's writings on ethics, considering the philosophical question of “what makes a human life good—what makes it worth living and what we must do, not merely to live, but to live well.” This video is a 1963 production of Encyclopædia Britannica Educational Corporation. Development ethics is consistent with the Aristotelian notion of "politics" as the means of accomplishing the aims of a "good society. Of all the classical theories considered here, his is the farthest from an ethics of self-interest. all excellence makes what has it good, and also enables it to perform its function well. Aristotelian Virtue Ethics Introduction. Nicomachean Ethics is the name of a series of books that Aristotle wrote about ethics. I. Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics present a new moral consideration for the utilization of virtue in a life of happiness. Aristotle certainly wrote two works on ethics, the Nicomachean Ethics (NE) and the Eudemian Ethics. With respect to the good, right, happiness, the good is not a disposition. Aristotle (384–322 BC) was a scholar in disciplines such as ethics, metaphysics, biology and botany, amongst others. Aristotle asserts that happiness is an activity of the rational part of man’s soul, and a happy life consists of contemplation and the habituation of virtues. Aristotle applied the same patient, careful, descriptive approach to his examination of moral philosophy in the Εθικη Νικομαχοι (Nicomachean Ethics).Here he discussed the conditions under which moral responsibility may be ascribed to individual agents, the nature of the virtues and vices involved in moral evaluation, and the methods of achieving happiness in human life. 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