Study Questions for Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics, Book III

1. Why would someone writing about ethics want to “define the voluntary and the involuntary”?

2. What sorts of actions are “forced”? Are they really actions at all? (1110a2-4)

3. What does Aristotle think about actions done (as we would say) under duress – actions we do because of a threat – are they voluntary or involuntary? (1110a5-110b15)

4. What reasons does Aristotle give for thinking that actions motivated by pleasure are not forced? (1110b10-17)

5. What is the difference between an action “caused by ignorance” and an action “done in ignorance”? (1110b25-30)

6. Aristotle says ignorance of the universal is blameworthy and does not make actions involuntary but that ignorance of the particulars does make an action involuntary. What does he mean by “ignorance of the particulars”? Is he right to say that this kind of ignorance makes our actions involuntary? (1110b30-1111a18)

7. Why is it wrong to say that actions caused by spirit or by appetites are involuntary? (1111a25-1111b3)

8. How are voluntary action, deliberation and choice related to one another? (Chapter 2)

9. “Some think that wish is for the good, others that it is for the apparent good.” How does Aristotle reconcile these two views? (Chapter 4)

10. “Virtue and vice are up to us.” How so? (How does this fit in with his earlier emphasis on the need for a proper upbringing?) (Chapter 5)

The rest of Book III begins a discussion of the various virtues, one by one. Read his discussions of bravery and temperance (self-control) with the aim of getting a better understanding of

a. What Aristotle thinks a virtue is;

b. The doctrine of the mean

c. How we can know what sort of action is or isn’t virtuous.