Annotated Bibliography: ARISTOTLE NICOMACHEAN ETHICS

ARISTOTLE NICOMACHEAN ETHICS

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ARISTOTLE NICOMACHEAN ETHICS

Kucukuysal, Bahadır, and Erhan Beyhan. "Virtue ethics in Aristotle’s Nicomachean ethics." Journal of Human Sciences 8, no. 2 (2011): 43-51.

Intellectual virtues are often oriented towards enabling human beings to think rationally whereas moral virtues allow human beings to handle their desires and emotions in a rational manner. In this article, Aristotle outlines that virtue is a habit that can be learned through continuous practice. For instance, moral values such as justice, temperance and fortitude can be gained by habitual action. For that reason, virtues are said to be gained by acting in a virtuous manner. Human beings can be taught to act in a virtuous manner since human virtue does not necessarily signify body excellence, but excellence of one’s soul. The article is concluded by stating that human beings can take the middle course where moral goodness is seen as the intermediate state between emotions and action.

London, Alex John. "Moral Knowledge and the Acquisition of Virtue in Aristotle's" Nicomachean" and" Eudemian Ethics"." The Review of Metaphysics 54, No. 3, (2001): 553-583.

This article states that the aim of ethical enquiry through Nichomachean ethics was to understand virtue and by doing so, become good and happy human beings ourselves. Aristotle in the Nichomachean ethics emphasizes the need for “experience first” when approaching issues of ethical development. The article stresses how gaining practical experience and intellectual value enables one to act well and to benefit from understanding ethical matters. The author considers moral virtue as a ‘mean’ state in the sense that it can aim at and attain the mean. The relationship between action and emotions is what comprises moral virtues. As such, it is through actions that human beings develop emotional responses and moral virtues that define their character.

Deslauriers, Marguerite. “How to Distinguish Aristotle's Virtues”. Phronesis 47, No. 2  (2002), pp. 101-126

According to this article, the author stresses that a virtuous person has the ability to embody both intellectual virtues as well as moral virtues. Intellectual virtues are often based on habits of deliberation whereas moral virtues such as courage and justice deal with the person’s dispositions. In this case, the moral virtue is considered different from the intellectual virtues but it is also important to discern that the moral virtues differ from one another. This article emphasizes that Aristotle's intellectual virtues as one hexis concerned with truth in a particular way whereas moral virtues are concerned with the right desire. Either virtue is motivated by a conception of which virtue includes a capacity for human thought other than reason.