Aristotle Lesson 3

Learning Intention:

To identify and define the key concepts in Book 2 of The Nicomachean Ethics.

Reading:

You should by now have read Book 2 of The Nicomachean Ethics

After last week’s lesson you should be more familiar with how a summary of a chapter should read. Today I want you to produce summaries of the chapters from Book 2.

Summarising:

Summarising is a really important skill for you to practise as philosophers and readers. In a sense summarising is the intermediate sense between reading a text and analysing it. By determining the most important information in the text you will be able to more easily identify the propositions and arguments set forward. We’ll work on this analysis later this week.

Below I’ve reproduced the notes I took while reading Chapter 1 from Book II:

• Excellence is either Intellectual or Moral
• Teaching leads to intellectual development
• Morality developed by custom
• Moral virtues not derived ‘merely’ from nature
• Example of the stone being thrown in the air
• Builders by building, harpists by harping, etc…
• Not just doing it but doing it well (builders)
• Being accustomed from childhood makes all the difference

There are several other points which Aristotle raises, and he deals with each of these points in far more detail than my dot-points convey, but I have determined that these are the most important parts from the chapter. In some chapters there’ll be more dot points, in some chapters fewer.

From these dot-points I wrote this summary:

 

Aristotle begins Book II by stating that there are two kinds of human excellence: “Intellectual and Moral”. He believes that intellectual excellence can be taught and grows from experience and time, but moral excellence (“Virtue”) is different and comes through custom. He makes a clear statement that he does not believe any of the “Moral Virtues comes to be in us merely by nature.” Aristotle does not accept that good men are born good or bad men are born bad; there is no “evil gene”. He illustrates this with an analogy to gravity. No matter how many times a stone is thrown in the air it is, to the Ancient Greek manner of thinking, in the stone’s nature to fall. Custom cannot change nature, but Aristotle believes that custom can make a man good (or bad).

He also uses the examples of craftsmen and artists, who have developed their skills through practice. “Men come to be builders, for instance, by building; harp-players, by playing the harp: exactly so, by doing just actions we come to be just…” But simply acting, even practising is not enough. To become a good person I must not simply act but act well. “…by building well men will become good builders; by doing it badly, bad ones…” The implication here is that it is not only what I do, but how I do it, which determines whether I will be a good person. Good acts must be practised, and practised well, until they become customary to me; a habit of mine. For Aristotle this process must begin in childhood. If I wish to be a good person then whether I was accustomed to acting well or acting poorly in childhood will make “all the difference.”

You should be able to identify where in that summary I have taken each of the dot-points I noted and explained it in more detail. I have included direct quotes from the text to illustrate where I sourced the ideas I felt to be the chapter’s most important. I do perhaps, in places start to introduce some analysis of argument or even to foreshadow my responses to his arguments, but the focus is very much on Aristotle’s ideas and the way(s) he puts them forward. Remember that at this stage of the course our goal is reading, remembering and understanding the texts. Higher order thinking will come once that foundation is established.

Practice:

Here are my dot-point notes for Chapter 2. Use these to write chapter summaries as above:

• Aristotle’s focus is not an academic knowledge of virtue, but a guide to action.
• There is a general maxim to act in accordance with ‘Right Reason’
• Matters of moral action cannot be fixed
• Each individual agent and each case will have different circumstances (exigencies)
• Nature is spoilt by excess or defect (too much or too little food impairs health)
• Courage too can have excess or defect. Too little: coward. Too much: rash.
• Virtues are spoilt by excess or defect but preserved by the ‘mean state’.
• When we practise virtues, and master them, they become easier for us.

And Chapter 3:

• Simply to act is not enough. You must choose to do it and be glad to do it.
• Acting because you feel forced in to it doesn’t count as a virtuous act.
• Three things move us to act: the honourable, the expedient (easy), the pleasant.
• Three things to avoid acts: the dishonourable, the hurtful (difficult), the painful.
• Of these pleasure is the most important because we find it in both honour and expedience as well.

As you can see there is less material here so I would expect the summary to be shorter.

Independently:

Take notes on chapters 4-6 and 9. Use those notes to write your own chapter summaries. These will be valuable study-aids for the first SAC and the work we will do in Term 2.

For Chapters 7 and 8 complete this chart (I’ve done the first one for you. Not every box need be filled as Aristotle in some cases either doesn’t identify, or doesn’t name, the state):

Sphere of actions	Deficiency	Mean state	Excess
Fears and confidence	Cowardice	Courage	Rashness
Pleasure and pain
Giving and taking wealth
Having wealth
Having honour/dishonour
Seeking honour/dishonour
Anger
The truth
Relaxation/amusement
Friendliness