Aristotle — Activity across a life, not a passing mood
The question that opens it
Is a good life a happy feeling, or a life of acting well in accordance with excellence?
- 1
Aristotle established his school at the Lyceum in Athens and taught there, but that activity evidence does not establish the exact composition place of the Nicomachean Ethics.
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Aristotle’s Lyceum
Hellenic Heritage
Locator: Athens Lyceum teaching activity
Open source
- 2
Eudaimonia is discussed not as a merely subjective mood but as the evaluative end of living well pursued for its own sake.
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Nicomachean Ethics
Aristotle · H. Rackham edition and historical English translation; Perseus Digital Library
Locator: Book I.4 and I.7
Open sourceAristotle’s Ethics
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Locator: Section 2
Open source
- 3
Book I.7 describes the human good as activity in accordance with excellence and requires the scope of a complete life rather than one good day.
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Nicomachean Ethics
Aristotle · H. Rackham edition and historical English translation; Perseus Digital Library
Locator: Book I.7
Open source
- 4
Books II.1–2 explain that ethical virtue arises through repeated action and habituation and that ethical inquiry aims at acting better in practice.
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Nicomachean Ethics
Aristotle · H. Rackham edition and historical English translation; Perseus Digital Library
Locator: Book II.1–2
Open source
- 5
The self-sufficiency discussed in I.7 includes relations with family, friends, and fellow citizens rather than an isolated individual alone.
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Nicomachean Ethics
Aristotle · H. Rackham edition and historical English translation; Perseus Digital Library
Locator: Book I.7
Open source
- 6
Aristotle holds that severe deficits in external conditions such as friends, resources, and fortune can impede excellent activity and living well.
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Nicomachean Ethics
Aristotle · H. Rackham edition and historical English translation; Perseus Digital Library
Locator: Book I.8–10
Open sourceAristotle’s Ethics
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Locator: Sections 2 and 8
Open source