HRS/PHL 403: Aristotle       Review Guide for Final Quiz        Dr Stephens        Fall 2003

Nicomachean Ethics
Book 10
Chapter 6
1. Explain why eudaimonia is not a state (1176a34).
Chapter 7
2. Present the argument for what eudaimonia consists in (Ch. 6–7).  Include the sub-argument that "happiness" is not found in amusement.  Explain what theoria is (1177a18–20).   Describe the Seven Reasons the supreme virtue is sophia and the happiest activity is theoria.  Why are children, nonhuman animals, and slaves incapable of eudaimonia?
Chapter 8
3. Describe A's account of the life that is happy in a secondary degree (1178a9–b7).  Why do humans choose this kind of life?
4. Present A's argument that the gods must study ("theorize").
Chapter 9
5. How much influence does A. think arguments have on people?  What do most people obey?
6. What role do laws play in forming habits?  What do most people yield to, according to A.?

Politics
Book 1
Chapter 1
1. Describe the Argument that the Polis aims at the highest good.  Evaluate it; what are its strengths?  Weaknesses?
2. Does A. think the art of managing a household is equivalent to the art of governing a small polis?
Chapter 2
1. Describe the Argument for the Natural Genesis of the Polis (1252a25–1252b30).  Evaluate it; what are its strengths?  Weaknesses?
2. What does A. say about anyone who is without a polis because of his nature?
3. Describe Aristotle's Argument that Humans are the Most Political Animals (1253a8–18).
4. Which is naturally prior, the polis, the household, or the individual?  Why?  Describe the Argument for the Natural Priority of the ___ (1253a26–27).
5. What does A. say about anyone who is incapable of membership in a community? (1253a28–29)
6. When is a human being the best of the animals?  When the worst?
Chapter 3
1. Identify the FOUR parts of the household.
Chapter 4
1. What does household management require?
2. What are slaves, according to Aristotle?  What makes someone a natural slave?
Chapter 5
1. Describe the Argument for Natural Slavery (1254a29–1254b21).  Evaluate it in detail.  Who does it apply to?  Who does it NOT apply to?

Poetics
1. Why did Aristotle write the Poetics?
2. What do literary critics almost universally agree about Aristotle's Poetics?
3. What genre of literature is it primarily concerned with?
4. At which god's festivals were over a thousand tragedies performed by the Athenians for a period of well over a hundred years?
5. State Dr. Bakewell's functional definition of a tragedy.
6. Does Bakewell think that Aristotle's aesthetic preferences accord with those of Athenians generally?  With those who awarded prizes for competitions?  What are we to think of this?
Chapter 4
1. What does A. say about imitating?  About enjoyment of the products of imitation?
2. How does seeing pictures promote learning?
Chapter 6
1. State A's definition of tragedy at 1449b25–28.  How does it differ from Bakewell's definition?  Which is better?
2. Identify the SIX parts of the tragedy.  Which two are the means by which imitation occurs?  Which one is the way in which the agents express a view?  Which three are the things imitated?
3. What is tragedy an imitation of?  What does A. say it is NOT an imitation of? (1450a15).
4. What do people's characters make them?  What do their actions make them? (1450a16).
5. What does A. say is the principle or the SOUL of the tragedy?
Chapter 7
1. What three parts does a whole have?
2. What determines the length of the story?
Chapter 8
1. Why does a story being about one person not make it a unity?
2. What if the addition or nonaddition of something has no clear effect on the story?
Chapter 9
1. Contrast what historians describe with what poets describe.  Why does A. think poetry is more philosophical than history?
2. Which two FEELINGS does tragedy arouse?
Chapter 10
1. Explain the difference between one thing happening BECAUSE of another and one thing happening AFTER another.
Chapter 11
1. Identify the THREE parts of the story.  Define each part.
Chapter 13
1. Which sort of story-line is an object of abhorrence?  Which sort of story-line is the most untragic of all? (1452b34–38).
2. What sort of person must tragedy be about?  Why?  Explain three different interpretations of the Greek word hamartia.
Chapter 14
1. What is Aristotle's opinion of "visual display" (including modern day "special effects")? (1453b9–10)
2. Whose killing of whom arouses pity?
Chapter 15
1. What does A. say about seeking what is necessary or what is likely? (1454a34–37)
2. What is Aristotle's opinion about the deus ex machina in a tragedy?