Summary There are two reasons for studying intellectual virtue: Because the virtuous man has been defined as one who acts in accordance with a right rule and this right rule is arrived at by intellectual processes. Because true happiness has been defined as an activity of the soul in conformity […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book VI: Chapter I – Psychological Basis of Intellectual VirtueSummary and Analysis Book V: Analysis for Book V
Summary The meaning of justice constitutes the subject matter of this book. It is one of the most important topics discussed in the Nicomachean Ethics for justice was often used by the Greeks in a manner that was practically synonymous with goodness. It will be recalled that in Plato’s Republic […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book V: Analysis for Book VSummary and Analysis Book V: Chapter XI – Can a Man be Unjust toward Himself?
Summary Is it possible for a man to act unjustly toward himself (e.g., is the man who commits suicide or mutilates himself guilty of an injustice to himself)? In their truest senses, justice and injustice pertain only to social relations and dealings between men. Someone other than the agent is […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book V: Chapter XI – Can a Man be Unjust toward Himself?Summary and Analysis Book V: Chapter X – Equity and Justice
Summary Equity and justice are closely related. While not absolutely identical, they belong to the same genus and are both morally good. What is equitable is just, in one sense, but in another sense it is higher than what is just since equity is the principle applied to correct justice […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book V: Chapter X – Equity and JusticeSummary and Analysis Book V: Chapter IX – Additional Discussion of Relation between Voluntariness and Just Action
Summary Who is the guilty party when an injustice is done, the person who receives an unfair proportion of what is distributed or the person who acts as distributor? The answer to this is complicated by several factors. Certainly, whether distributor or recipient, it is possible for a man to […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book V: Chapter IX – Additional Discussion of Relation between Voluntariness and Just ActionSummary and Analysis Book V: Chapter VIII – Degrees of Personal Responsibility
Summary Now that justice has been defined and described, it is necessary to add that a man acts justly or unjustly only when his acts have been performed voluntarily. Actions can be just or unjust only when they are voluntary and it is only in regard to voluntary acts that […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book V: Chapter VIII – Degrees of Personal ResponsibilitySummary and Analysis Book V: Chapter VII – Natural and Conventional Justice
Summary Political justice takes two forms — natural and conventional. Natural justice has the same validity everywhere and is unaffected by the view men take of it at any given time or place. It is made up of rights and duties that are obligatory in any society (e.g., strictures against […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book V: Chapter VII – Natural and Conventional JusticeSummary and Analysis Book V: Chapter VI – Political and Social Justice, Domestic Justice
Summary Besides defining absolute justice, it is also necessary to determine what form justice takes in social and political matters. Political justice may be said to exist where men share a common way of life that enables them to have all they require for self-sufficient existence as free and equal […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book V: Chapter VI – Political and Social Justice, Domestic JusticeSummary and Analysis Book V: Chapter V – Reciprocal Justice and the Function of Money
Summary The Pythagoreans define absolute justice as reciprocity, saying that justice in the unqualified sense is having done to one what one has done to another (i.e., an eye for an eye). The principle of reciprocity as they state it is oversimplified and does not agree with the ideas of […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book V: Chapter V – Reciprocal Justice and the Function of MoneySummary and Analysis Book V: Chapter IV – Remedial Justice
Summary Corrective or remedial justice pertains to both voluntary and involuntary transactions. In cases of the first kind, two parties voluntarily entered into a contract or relationship and injury was done to one party. The duty of the judge in such a case is not to punish, but to remedy, […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book V: Chapter IV – Remedial Justice