Study Questions for Aristotle's
Nicomachean Ethics
Book X, Second Part: Happiness (Again)

Instructor: Dr. Jan Garrett

Last revised date: August 1, 2007

Study Questions for use with T. H. Irwin's translation (Hackett, 1999). This version prepared in July 2007.

14. 1176a30-1176b7 summarize what was said about happiness in Book I. How does Aristotle explain the popular view that happiness consists of pleasant amusements? (1176b9-18)

15. State at least three arguments against this popular view. (1176b18-1177a10)

Chapters 7-8 are sometimes held to be in conflict, or at least in tension, with Aristotle's stated position elsewhere. Most of the Nicomachean Ethics is about the virtues of the "practical" life (the moral virtues plus prudence) but these chapters introduce, and give priority to, a different sort of life.

16. What eight reasons are cited in support of the claim that the life of theoretical study (theôria) is the best? (1177a11-1178a8)

17. Compare what Aristotle says here about political life (1177b8-18) with what he says about the virtues and their associated actions in Book II, 1105a32-33 and his claim in Book VI (1140b7) that action has no end beyond itself. Also compare what Aristotle says about the self-sufficiency of study (1177a28-1177b2) with his comments in IX, 9, on the need for friends. Can we resolve the tensions here? If so, how?

18. Why does Aristotle say that the (moral) virtues and prudence require more external supplies than the virtues of understanding (noűs, whose primary activity is study)? (1178a25-b9)

19. Summarize what is said about the gods at 1178b9-1179a39. How does that support the claim that the life of study is supreme? Discuss the claim: "Aristotle makes exaggerated claims for the pleasures of study here. After all, we are not gods, as he usually recognizes."

Reflections on the Role of These Discourses

20. What can arguments accomplish in the direction of virtuous action? (1179b5-9)

21. Can they lead the many (i.e., the majority) to virtue? Explain. (1179b10-19)

22. What must we have before we can listen profitably to arguments on matters related to action? (1179b24-32)

23. How are people in general to be directed towards a life of virtue, or at least away from a wicked life? Explain the relation between law and habituation. (1179b33-1180a8)

24. Discuss: According to Aristotle lawgivers should deal differently with those who have good habits, the base person, and the "completely incurable." (1180a7-19)

25. In what way is law a better moral teacher than one's father? In what way is a father a better teacher than the law? (1180a19-24, b3-7)

26. What duty does Aristotle impose on heads of household in communities where lawgivers have not paid attention to communal upbringing (education)? (1180a30-33).

27. What kind of person, according to Aristotle, ought to acquire legislative science (nomothetikę), the supreme form of the political art or science (politikę)? (1180a34-b3; 1180b17-29)

To some extent, Aristotle is presenting his account of "human things," the subject matter of the Ethics and the Politics, as helping to create the teaching capacity he finds lacking in the sophists and the political activists he mentions next.

28a. What do the sophists lack for teaching this science? the political activists (The latter phrase suggests statesmen, who aim at what they think of as the public good)? (1180b33-1181a16)

28b. What do the sophists think easy? With what do they confuse political science? (1181a13-17)

29. What does selection of the best laws require? (Note that Aristotle discusses the intellectual virtue "comprehension" in Book VI, 1143a1-19.) What is "the most important thing"? How do we acquire this capacity? (1181a20-b6)

The last sentence of the paragraph ending at about 1181b3 might be translated: "For neither do we appear to become doctors by studying [medical] prescriptions."

30. How might collections of laws and political systems be most useful? (1181b6-12)

31. What does A. call the philosophy he wishes to bring to completion? (How does his task--yet to be completed at this point--relate to his predecessors?) (1181b12ff)