Study Questions for Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics, Book I

Book I

1. Why must there be some end (goal) that we desire for itself and not as a means to something else? (1094a18-22)

2. Aristotle has seemed to some readers to be arguing (fallaciously) that, since every action aims at some good, then there must be some one good at which every action aims. Can you think of another way of interpreting the text? (You might want to look at Irwin’s note on this point, p.173.)

3. Why must arguments in ethics be inexact? (1094b13-26?

4. Why should young people not be studying this subject? (1095a2-11)

5. Why should we think that ‘the good’ is not pleasure or honor or wealth? (1094b14-1096a11)

6. How does Aristotle criticize Plato’s view that there is a single Idea (or Form) of the good? (Chapter 6)

7. In Chapter 7 Aristotle says that the best good is ‘complete’ and ‘self-sufficient’ and ‘choiceworthy’. What does he mean by these terms? And why does he think that happiness satisfies these criteria? (1097a25-1097b21)

8. What does Aristotle identify as ‘the function of a human being’? What reasons does he give for thinking that this is our function? (1097b25-1098a8) Does it make sense to you to say that human beings have a function? (You might want to look at Richard Norman’s discussion of this point, pp.31-35 in The Moral Philosophers.)

9. Why is the good an activity and not a state? (1098b30-1099a7)

10. Why is the sort of life Aristotle has identified with happiness (a life of action in accordance with virtue) supposed to be pleasant? (1099a8-20)

11. Why does happiness require external goods (wealth, beauty, friends)? (1099a28-1099b8)

12. Aristotle says (1100a2) that a child cannot be happy. What does this tell us about how he understands ‘happiness’?

13. Why is Aristotle reluctant to conclude that our happiness depends on good fortune? What place does he finally give to good and bad fortune in determining human happiness? (Chapters 9, 10, and 11)

14. How does Aristotle divide the soul into parts, and how does his division compare to Plato’s? (1102a30-1103a5)