PHL 359                 Review Guide for Exam #1 (Aristotle)            Prof. Stephens

Rowe’s Historical Introduction
1. Give a brief overview of Aristotle’s life, when and where he was born, his family, career, and when he died.

Broadie’s Philosophical Introduction
1. How does A’s account of the good differ from Plato’s? (9)
2. How does A’s account of being differ from Parmenides’? (class lecture)
3. How does A’s account of the chief good differ from utilitarianism?
4. What are health, wealth, pleasure, honor, respect, beauty, love, and friendship?  How do they relate to eudaimonia, according to A?
5. What does A assume the primary purpose of political power is? (10)
6. What two expectations does A have of his audience?
7. What does A say about eudaimonia and praise?
8. What does A think is THE fundamental task of ethics? (16)
9. What does “Hogarthian” mean?

Nicomachean Ethics

Book 1
1. In Chapter 1 what does A say about every sort of expert knowledge, every inquiry, and every action, undertaking, and project?  How are different activities related to each other?
2. Why is political expertise important?  How is the study of ethics related to political inquiry?
3. What are living well and doing well, according to A?
4. How much precision is possible in ethics, according to A?  Why does he think this?
5. What makes a person a good judge, acc. to A?  Who is not an appropriate audience for the political expert and why?
6. What is the end studying ethics and political expertise, acc. to A?
7. What does A say is necessary to listen appropriately to discussion about what is fine and just? (1095b4-6)
8. What are the four prominent types of life discussed by A?  How does he evaluate each one as a candidate for the eudaimōn life?
9. In Chapter 7, what properties or attributes does A say the chief end (good) has?
10. Present A’s argument for a human ergon. (1097b24 ff.)
11. In what ways must the chief good be complete?
12. What are the three classes of goods A identifies in Chapter 8?
13. What must the excellent person delight in?
14. Identify six different external goods.  How is the presence or absence of each of these related to eudaimonia?
15. In Chapter 9 A says that people debate about how eudaimonia is gained.  What six alternatives does he discuss?  Which does he reject and why?
16. Present the Argument that Only Human Adults are Rightly Called “Happy” (1099b30-1100a4)
17. In Chapter 10 how does A relate turns of fortune to eudaimonia?
18. State as precisely as you can the full definition of he who is eudaimōn (1101a14-16).
19. Diagram the human soul, as A describes it in Chapter 13, i.e. how does he divide it into parts?

Book 2
1. In Chapter 1 what two main types of excellence does A contrast?  How does each type come about?
2. How is habit important in A’s account of ethics?
3. What isn’t the purpose of studying ethics?  What is? (1103b29)
4. How are excess and deficiency related to affections (feelings) and excellences (virtues)?  What does the intermediate do?
5. What does the pain or pleasure felt by an agent performing an action indicate?  Why is pleasure so powerful for humans? (Chapter 3)
6. Identify the three objects of choice and their contraries, the three objects of avoidance.
7. In Chapter 4 what does A say are the three conditions for performing an act justly (or moderately)? (1105a30-33)
8. Identify the three kinds of things that occur in the soul, one of which must be excellence. (Chapter 5)
9. Give an inventory of each of these kinds of psychic things.  Explain A’s reasons for rejecting the first two kinds of things in the soul as candidates for excellence (virtue).
10. Present A’s Argument that Every Organ and Organism has its own Excellence (1106a18-24).
11. What does A say about fear, confidence, appetite, anger, pity, and in general pleasure and pain with respect to intermediacy? (1106b21-23; Chapter 6)
12. State as precisely and fully as you can A’s complete definition of aretē (excellence/virtue) (1106b36-1107a2).  Explain what this means.
13. Which three affections does A say are always bad and wrong, never admitting of intermediacy?
14. Which three actions does A say are always bad and wrong, never admitting of intermediacy?
15. Name the deficiency and the excess for feeling fear.  Name the intermediate disposition (i.e. excellence). 
16. Name the deficiency and the excess for feeling boldness.  Name the intermediate disposition (i.e. excellence). 
17. Name the deficiency and the excess for pleasures and pains.  Name the intermediate disposition (i.e. excellence).
18. Name the deficiency and the excess for giving and taking smaller sums of money.  Name the intermediate disposition (i.e. excellence).  (Cf. Bk 4, Ch. 1)
19. Name the deficiency and the excess for giving and taking larger sums of money.  Name the intermediate disposition (i.e. excellence).  (Cf. Bk 4, Ch. 2)
20. Name the deficiency and the excess for great honors and dishonors.  Name the intermediate disposition (i.e. excellence).  (Cf. Bk 4, Ch. 3)
21. Name the deficiency and the excess for small honors.  Name the intermediate disposition (i.e. excellence).  (Cf. Bk 4, Ch. 4)
22. Name the deficiency and the excess for feeling anger.  Name the intermediate disposition (i.e. excellence).  (Cf. Bk 4, Ch. 5)
23. Name the deficiency and the excess for telling truths about oneself in social contexts.  (Cf. Bk 4, Ch. 6)
24. Name the deficiency and the excess for pleasantness in playful conversation and action in any part of life.  Name the intermediate disposition (i.e. excellence).  (Cf. Bk 4, Ch. 8)
25. What is A’s view of the relationship between shame and excellence?
26. In Chapter 9 what does A say hitting upon the intermediate in affections and actions requires?

Book 3
1. Explain A’s account of COURAGE (Chapter 6).
2. Identify the eight pseudo-courages A distinguishes from real courage (Chapter 8).
3. Explain A’s account of MODERATION and self-indulgence.  From which six types of people does A distinguish the self-indulgent? (Chapters 10–12).

Book 4
1. Explain A’s account of OPEN-HANDEDNESS (Chapter 1).
2. Briefly explain A’s account of MUNIFICENCE (megaloprepeia) (Chapter 2).
3. Explain A’s account of GREATNESS OF SOUL. (Chapter 3).
4. Present The Greatness of Soul Pertains to Honors and Dishonors Argument (1123b15-22).
5. Present The Why It’s Hard to be Great-Souled Argument (1123b27-1124a4).
6. Why does A think the great-souled person (GASP) is justified in looking down on ordinary people? (1124b5-6)
7. What does the GASP risk himself for?  What doesn’t he risk himself for?
8. What kind of friends does the GASP have?  How does the GASP deal with his enemies?
9. When does the GASP feel admiration?  What impresses the GASP?  What doesn’t he remember?  What doesn’t the GASP talk about?
10. Who does the GASP praise?  What does the GASP not complain about?  When does the GASP ask for help, hurry, or get tense?
11. Explain A’s account of MILDNESS.  How do bitter people act, according to A? (Chapter 5)
12. Describe the several defects when mixing with others, living in their company, and sharing with them in conversations and the business of life.  Names the excesses. (Chapter 6)
13. Name the defect and the excess regarding how to tell the truth about oneself. (Chapter 7)
14. Name the defect, the excess, and the intermediate (excellence) regarding how to pleasure when socializing. (Chapter 8)
12. What does A say about relaxation and play in life? (1128b4; Chapter 8)

Book 6
1. Identify the three things determining action and truth. (Ch. 2)
2. Identify the five (5) states by which the soul has truth through affirmation and denial. (Ch. 3)
3. State A’s definition of phronēsis ([practical] wisdom) (1140b4-5; Ch. 5).  Explain what this faculty does and why it is so important.
4. Which state by which the soul has truth grasps the “starting points” (premises) of a deductive argument? (Ch. 6)
5. Which of the five kinds of states by which the soul has truth is the most precise? (Ch. 7)
6. State A’s definition of sophia (intellectual accomplishment) (1141a18-19).
7. Present the Argument that Sophia is the Most Serious of All Things (1141a18-28).
8. Contrast the phronimos (wise person) with the sophos (person with intellectual accomplishment). (Chapters 7, 8, 12)

Book 8
1. Explain the detail A’s account of friendship.  Which different kinds of relations count as philia for A?
2. Identify TEN different groups of people that A argues need friends (Ch. 1)
3. Explain the THREE different types of the lovable, and hence the three different types of philia. (Ch. 2)
4. Describe the SIX necessary conditions for being one of a pair of philoi (friends).
5. Which type of people incline to which kind of philia? (Ch. 3)
6. Contrast philia as a disposition with philia as an activity. (Ch. 4)
7. What does A think about being a philos (friend) to many people? (1158a11-13; Ch. 6)
8. Briefly explain A’s account of philiai (friendships) involving superiority, e.g. father-son. (Ch. 7)
9. Briefly explain A’s account of love between mother and child. (Ch. 8)
10. Briefly explain A’s account of philia between husband and wife (Chapter 7 and Chapter 11: 1161a23-25).
11. In what respect can one be a philos with a slave? (Ch. 11)

Book 9
1. Explain four reasons why the happy person needs philoi (friends). (Ch. 9)
2. Present the Argument that the Blessedly Happy Person (blapper) Requires Excellent Friends (1170b15-19).

Book 10
1. Explain in as much detail as you can A’s argument in Chapters 6 to 7 for what eudaimonia consists in.
2. Why does A think that eud. does not consist in amusement?  What does A say is the relationship between relaxation and work (labor)?
3. Explain the SEVEN reasons why the supreme excellence is sophia (intellectual accomplishment) and the happiest activity is theōria (reflection). (Ch. 7: B&R p. 250–252)
4. Explain why A thinks that the life in accordance with the rest of excellence (i.e. the social-political virtues of character) is second happiest (Ch. 8).
5. What is the activity of a GOD, according to A, and what is his argument for this conclusion?  How is this divine activity relevant to happy human activity? (1178b8-32; Ch. 8)