Perfect and Flawed Virtue

Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics Book 2, Chapter 3a

This is a popular rendition of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics for contemporary readers. Brief, understandable pieces with a short practice to integrate the wisdom into your life. No philosophical background necessary. 

Do you feel great about being good? Do you dance in joy from your acts of excellence?

Do you feel pain at ethical failure? Do gloom and sorrow pursue your degeneracy?

The pleasure and pain that accompany our actions are a sign of our character. 

One who acts virtuously but is pained by doing so has a flaw in their virtue. For example, one who abstains from a superfluous bodily pleasure but feels vexed doing so is licentious. But if he enjoys this abstention he is moderate and virtuous.

Frame the question this way: Is your character in harmony with rational action? Or is your character a demon struggling to exit a coercive net of truth?

It’s not enough to just read.

Manifest this wisdom in your life by doing this practice, or it will slip through your fingers.

It takes less than 5 minutes.

Choose well. 

Practice:

• Fill out this table with the instructions below

  • Find a habitual activity that is both pleasurable for you and a virtue.

  • Find a habitual activity that is both painful for you and a virtue

  • Find a habitual activity that is both pleasurable for you and a vice

  • Find a habitual activity that is both painful for you and a vice

• What does it reveal about your character?