Essay on The Contradictions in Aristotles Nicomachean...

When I think about what makes me happiest in life, I put my family and friends at the top of the list. I know that there is no way I would be who I am today without them. My family loves me and has taught me most of what I know about how to live. Friends have taught me so much more about myself than I could ever have imagined; how to laugh at myself, how to love myself, how to learn from my mistakes, etc. All these people in my life have given me so much and I have in return offered what I have to give. Secondly, I would probably put my knowledge. It is what I need to be able to understand how the world works today and voice my opinion in the community; to benefit myself and teach others. Next on my list, I would put art.†¦show more content†¦To begin with, voluntary actions are those of which the moving principle is in the agent himself, he being aware of the particular circumstances of the action.p.967 23-24 Choice is also voluntary or in our own power and is that desired after deliberation. An example of this is action of friendship. Friendship is a reciprocated goodwill. In other words, friends must mutually recognize bearing goodwill and wishing well to one another, otherwise one would never know how the other felt and it would not be friendship. Aristotle goes on to state the desire of a virtuous friend for a virtuous man by explaining that life is the act of perceiving or thinking and it is good for the virtuous man because it is of the nature of the good. And if life is good and pleasant and he who perceives, perceives that he exists (because perceiving is existing) and this is pleasant and if the virtuous man is to his friend as he is to himself: if all of this is true,..He needs, therefore, to be conscious of the existence of his friend as well. p.1090 10-12 This is saying that a virtuous man needs friends because he himself is his own friend and a part of being your own friend is the act of perceiving your own existence. For the man who does not perceive, he says such a life is intermediate, as are its attributes. Therefore, if we do not participate in the action of friendship, we are not be able to perceive ourselves, and if we could not perceive ourselves, we would notShow MoreRelatedAristotle And Aristotle On Friendship1480 Words   |  6 PagesIn work his work The Nicomachean Ethics Aristotle addresses the question: what is the good life? 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