Aristotle and Civic Relationships for Ethics Class Talks About How Aristotle Is Evaluated from a Nicomachean Ethics Standpoint

Civic Relationships

In the book Nicomachean Ethics Aristotle wrote ten books, each one having a different theme, except for books eight and nine which are both on friendship. Some of the other books include: happiness, virtue of character, preconditions of a virtue, justice, and virtues of thought. In this essay I will present Aristotle’s ideas on civic relationships and I will also evaluate current trends of citizenship, and apply Aristotle’s view to current views and my own view of civic relationships. Happiness according to Aristotle is the ultimate goal in life.

A lot of the confusion in Aristotle’s works come not from the deficiency in clarity but rather from a loss in translation. The Ancient Greeks used terms for which there are no exact English words. A central concept of Ethics is eudaimonia which is translated into happiness. Even though happiness is the closest translation of this word, it carries a larger connotation. People who are eudaimon do not just enjoy life, but they enjoy life life by living successfully.

Book I in Nicomachean Ethics is about happiness, which is our highest goal. All humans aim at some end that is considered good, and this good that we are aiming at must be the supreme good. The Greek word ethos means character, but ethics is not concerned with determining what is right or wrong, but rather how to live a virtuous and happy life. The problem with this is that we can only aim at a rough outline of the good because what may be good for one person, is not good for another. The supreme good is happiness; usually there is no disagreement that the supreme good is happiness, but there is disagreement about what constitutes happiness. There are a few things that need to be understood about happiness. Happiness is considered an activity, rather than a state of being. Happiness is also a public affair, not a private one. Happiness being a public affair was established in Greek city-states. In these city-states there...