Aristotelian Ethics - Three Ethical Treatises

Three Ethical Treatises

Three Aristotelian ethical works survive today which are considered to be either by Aristotle, or from relatively soon after:

• Nicomachean Ethics, the most popular
• Eudemian Ethics
• Magna Moralia

All three may have been compiled by students of Aristotle, especially the Magna Moralia, but they are all considered to be quite similar in the material covered and the method of covering it. (The Magna Moralia is sometimes considered to be a more summarized format.) The Nicomachean Ethics has received the most scholarly attention, and is the most easily available to the public in many different translations and editions. Some critics consider the Eudemian Ethics to be "less mature," while others, such as Kenny (1978), contend that the Eudemian Ethics is the more mature, and therefore later, work. Books IV-VI of Eudemian Ethics also appear as Books V-VII of Nicomachean Ethics.

Traditionally it was believed that the Nicomachean Ethics and the Eudemian Ethics were either edited by or dedicated to Aristotle's son and pupil Nicomachus and his disciple Eudemus, respectively, although the works themselves do not explain the source of their names. Although Aristotle's father was also called Nicomachus, Aristotle's son was the next leader of Aristotle's school, the Lyceum, and in ancient times he was already associated with this work.

A fourth treatise, Aristotle's Politics, is often regarded as the sequel to the Ethics; Aristotle's Ethics states that the good of the individual is subordinate to the good of the city-state, or polis.