HRS/PHL 403: Aristotle Review Guide for Exam #3 Dr Stephens Fall 2003
Candidates for essays are numbered in red. Must-know items are numbered underlined and bolded.
Nicomachean Ethics
Book 1
1. Explain the argument for the superiority of superordinate crafts and ends
over subordinate crafts and ends in Ch. 1. Give examples.
2. What is identified as the 'most controlling science' in Ch. 2? What are the
three subordinate sciences under this ruling science?
3. Explain the degree of exactness and certainty that is said to be possible in
the study of ethics (1094b20 f., 1104a1-9 and elsewhere).
4. Explain the nature of good judging and who the unconditionally good judge is
(1095a1).
5. To benefit from the study of ethics (and political science) what is
necessary? (1095b4)
6. What are the four prominent types of
life (Ch. 5)? What criticisms are made of three of
these lives to disqualify them as candidates for what eudaimonia
consists in?
7. Explain Aristotle's argument that 'happiness' (eudaimonia)
is the final, complete end (i.e. supreme good). For what reasons must it be a
kind of activity? (Chs. 7-8)
8. Present Aristotle's argument for a human
ergon (1097b24-1098a17).
9. State precisely A's complete definition of eudaimonia
(Ch. 10: 1101a14-16; Irwin & Fine p.363).
10. Identify the three types of goods
distinguished in Ch. 8.
11. Explain the relationship between noble and virtuous actions on the one hand,
and pleasure and pain on the other (Ch. 8: 1099a18-20). Explain the role of
pleasure and pain in A's ethical theory.
12. Summarize the essay by Daniel Barwick, "George's Failed Quest for Happiness:
An Aristotelian Analysis" from Seinfeld and Philosophy (Open Court, 2000)
15–26.
13. Who do you think is more vicious, George
(of Seinfeld) or Homer (of The Simpsons)? Which of the two
is farther from eudaimonia? Use the essays by Barwick
and Halwani, and your knowledge of Aristotle, to defend your judgment.
Book 2
1. Identify and contrast the intellectual virtues and how they
are acquired with the virtues of character and how they are
acquired (Ch. 1). Explain how virtues arise differently than things that come
by nature (e.g. the senses). Give examples of various virtues of character.
2. Explain the importance of habituation in A's account of
character development (Chs. 1-2).
3. What is the purpose of studying ethics? (Ch. 2: 1103b27)
4. Explain A's brief argument that virtue of character is concerned with
pleasures and pains (Ch. 3: 1104b9-11). What evidence does A offer for his
view?
5. Identify the three objects of choice and their corresponding
contraries (the three objects of avoidance) (Ch. 3).
6. State the three features of the state an agent must be in to
perform a virtuous action in a virtuous way (Ch. 4: 1105a30-33).
7. Identify the three genera of psychic conditions and explain
what each condition is (Ch. 5). Explain A's argument for which of these is the
genus virtue belongs to.
8. Present the argument that every organ
and organism has its own excellence (1106a18-24).
9. Explain in detail A's Doctrine of the
Intermediate (Chs. 2 & 6). Distinguish the intermediate in the object
from the intermediate relative to us. Give examples of things that admit of
excess, deficiency, and the mean. Identify the five aspects of
having feelings, pleasure, and pain in "the intermediate and best condition...
proper to virtue" (1106b20-23). State which three feelings and
which three actions do not admit of an intermediate and
explain why. Finally, list 9 of the 12 virtues of
character from the TABLE handout on Chapter 7;
identify the pairs of vices for 6 of those 9 virtues.
10. State precisely A's complete definition of arete
(1106b36-1107a2).
Book 3
1. What example of an action that is "mixed" voluntary and involuntary does A.
give in Chapter 1?
2. If an action is caused by ignorance, does A. consider it nonvoluntary or
involuntary?
3. List the SIX "particulars which the action consists in
and is concerned with" (111a1-3; Irwin & Fine p.379). Which of these are
the TWO most important?
4. How does A. define what is voluntary? (1110b23-24)
Book 5, Chapter 1
1. What three flavors (types) of injustice does A. identify?
2. Why does A. think justice is "complete virtue to the highest degree?
(1129b31-35; Irwin & Fine p.393)
3. What makes justice such a unique virtue, according to Aristotle?
Book 6
1. Diagram A's anatomy of the human soul (i.e.
its divisions and sub-parts) and explain the function of each part (Ch. 1).
2. What are the three things in the soul that control
action and truth? (Ch. 2) What originates action? What is decision,
exactly? (1139b4)
3. Which FIVE states grasp the truth in its
affirmations and denials? (give the Greek and the English) Contrast the
objects grasped by techne with the object grasped by episteme.
(Ch. 3)
4. What does "understanding" (nous) grasp? (Ch. 6)
5. Explain in detail A's account, and definitions, of
phronesis and sophia (Chs. 5, 7, 12, 13). Distinguish cleverness
from phronesis. Explain the difference between natural virtue and full
virtue.
6. Explain A's account of the Practical Syllogism.
Book 7
1. Identify the three kinds of moral states to be avoided and
their contraries (Ch. 1).
2. Explain in detail A's theory of
akrasia (incontinence). What does A say about Socrates' view of
akrasia? (Ch. 2: 1145b27-28) What two senses of "know" does A
distinguish in his account of akrasia? What three types of people are
comparable to the akratic man? How does the self-indulgent man differ from the
akratic man? (Ch. 3) Describe how A uses the practical syllogism
to identify the reasoning behind the akratic man's behavior.
3. Summarize the essay by Raja Halwani, "Homer and
Aristotle" from The Simpsons and Philosophy (Open Court, 2001) 7–23.
Who are Halwani's examples of a virtuous, continent, incontinent, and vicious
person in Springfield? What vices does he say Homer has?
Book 8, Chapters 1–3, 9
Chapter 1
1. Describe the meaning of the Greek word φιλία (philia).
What problems are involved in translating it "friendship"?
2. How is philia related to virtue (arete),
according to Aristotle?
3. Who needs friends, according to A.? (A. gives ten
answers) WHAT needs friendship to hold
together?
Chapter 2
1. What are the three species of the lovable?
2. What three features are true of two philoi ("friends")?
Chapter 3
1. Describe the three species of philia. Which
one do old people incline to?
2. Which species do young people incline to?
Explain why by describing the nature of young people, according to A. Do
you agree with him? Defend your judgment.
3. Which of the three species of friendship tend to last longest? Which of
the three is the rarest and why?
4. What factors are involved in the 3rd species of friendship,
that is, what are its necessary conditions? How long does it last?
Chapter 9
1. What does A. say about robbing someone, failing to help someone, and striking
someone at 1160a5–7?
Book 9, Chapters 4, 7–9, 12
Chapter 4
1. Which part of a human person most is that person, according to
A.? (1166a21–23)
2. A. gives four reasons why the excellent person is a philos to himself.
State those four reasons.
Chapter 7
1. What does A. say loving is like? What does he say being loved is like?
2. Describe Aristotle's comments comparing maternal and paternal love for
children.
Chapter 8
1. A. distinguishes self-lovers who are MANY
with the kind of self-lovers who are few. What do the former award
themselves the biggest share of? What do the latter award themselves the
biggest share of? Which group is reproached?
2. A. says that the excellent person "will choose
intense pleasure for a short time over mild pleasure for a long time; a year of
living finely over many years of undistinguished life; and a single fine and
great action over many small actions" (1169a23–25).
EXPLAIN WHY YOU THINK HE BELIEVES THIS.
3. What is the excellent person willing to sacrifice? Why?
Chapter 9
1. What does A. mean by saying that "your philos is another
yourself"? (1169b6; compare Ch. 12: 1171b33–34)
2. What are Aristotle's reasons for thinking it would be absurd
for the happy person to lack friends?
3. Explain why A. thinks life itself is good and pleasant (1170a20–29)
Chapter 12
1. What do philoi (friends) find most choiceworthy? (1171b32)
Book 10
1. Explain why eudaimonia is not a state (Ch. 6:
1176a34).
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?
3. Describe A's account of the life that is
happy in a secondary degree (Ch. 8: 1178a9-b7). Why do humans choose
this kind of life?
4. Present A's argument that the gods must study ("theorize") (Ch. 8).