Nicomachean Ethics · Chapter
Endnotes explained
This chapter contains endnotes that provide commentary, textual clarifications, and cross-references for the main text of the Nicomachean Ethics.
What happens
This chapter contains endnotes that provide commentary, textual clarifications, and cross-references for the main text of the Nicomachean Ethics. It discusses various topics such as justice, voluntary and involuntary action, intellectual virtues, pleasure, friendship, and equity, with references to earlier chapters and scholarly sources.
Themes in this chapter
Justice and Fairness
The endnotes extensively discuss distinctions between just and unjust acts, equity, and the nature of justice, including references to voluntary and involuntary actions.
Pleasure and Pain
Notes address the nature of pleasure, pain, and the neutral state, including a debate with Speusippus and the role of pleasure in virtuous activity.
Practical Wisdom and Reason
The endnotes clarify the role of intellectual virtues, practical wisdom (prudence), and the relationship between moral and intellectual virtues.
Friendship and Community
Notes on friendship discuss equality, proportionality, and the connection between friendship and political constitutions.
Characters to notice
- Aristotle
The author of the Nicomachean Ethics, whose arguments and distinctions are clarified in the endnotes.
- J. A. Stewart
Cited as a commentator on the Nicomachean Ethics, providing notes on textual interpretation.
- Trendelenburg
Mentioned in a textual emendation regarding the omission of 'οὐ δίκαιον'.
- Speusippus
Referenced in a note on the nature of pleasure and pain, where his view is contrasted with Aristotle's.
- Plato
Referenced in a note citing Plato's Republic.
- Homer
Cited in a note referencing Homer's Iliad.
- Bywater
Mentioned as a translator and editor of the Nicomachean Ethics.
- Socrates
Referenced indirectly through Plato's works and the broader philosophical context.
Key passages
“τὸ ξυμφέρον , which is usually rendered “expedient,” means simply that which conduces to any desired end; as the end varies, then, so will the expedient vary: cf. note 44 .”
The term 'expedient' refers to whatever helps achieve a particular goal, and since goals differ, what is expedient also changes.
Clarifies the meaning of a Greek term in the context of justice.
“You can always do the acts if you want to do them, i.e. if you will them; but you cannot at will do them in the spirit of a just or an unjust man; for character is the result of a series of acts of will”
While you can choose to perform actions, you cannot instantly adopt the mindset of a just or unjust person, because character develops over time through repeated choices.
Explains the relationship between voluntary acts and character formation.
“Pain generally ( ὅλως ) is bad, to be avoided. Objection: The pain of foregoing certain excessive pleasures is not to be avoided. Answer: The opposite of these excessive pleasures, i.e. the foregoing them, is not painful to the virtuous man, but only to him who sets his heart upon them, i.e. to a vicious or incontinent man.”
Pain is generally bad and to be avoided, but the pain of giving up excessive pleasures is not felt by the virtuous person, only by those who are attached to such pleasures.
Addresses an objection regarding the avoidance of pain in the context of pleasure and virtue.
