Introduction Aristotle

1 Aristotle (384 – 322 BC)
- student of Plato (427 – 347 BC),
- teacher of Alexander the Great

2 Philosophy of Aristotle
- Universalist: studied and taught all subjects available at the time, on logic, on physics and science (physics, meteoroloy, on the heaven, on the soul, on the sleep, on memory, on animals etc.), on philosophy (Metaphysics, Ethics, Politics, Rhetoric, Poetics and others)
- Philosophical Framework:
i) Shares with the early Wittgenstein the "empirical" starting point
ii) But he perceives (all) things as goal-directed (teleological) and draws further conclusion from this experience that leads to his conception of ethics (unlike the early Wittgenstein).

3 Nicomachean Ethics: Overview
3.1 Naming: Dedicated or edited by his son Nicomachus
3.2 Structure: The Nicomachean Ethics consists out of ten books. It can roughly be divided in three parts:
a) general ethics (book 1): the study of the good/highest good
b) virtues (book 2-4): the golden means, moral virtues
c) ethics in the context of society (book 5-10): justice, intellectual virtues, friendship, politics