{"product_id":"2940016116235","title":"The Ethics","description":"INTRODUCTION\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe _Ethics_ of Aristotle is one half of a single treatise of which his\u003cbr\u003e_Politics_ is the other half. Both deal with one and the same subject.\u003cbr\u003eThis subject is what Aristotle calls in one place the \"philosophy of\u003cbr\u003ehuman affairs;\" but more frequently Political or Social Science. In the\u003cbr\u003etwo works taken together we have their author's whole theory of human\u003cbr\u003econduct or practical activity, that is, of all human activity which\u003cbr\u003eis not directed merely to knowledge or truth. The two parts of this\u003cbr\u003etreatise are mutually complementary, but in a literary sense each\u003cbr\u003eis independent and self-contained. The proem to the _Ethics_ is an\u003cbr\u003eintroduction to the whole subject, not merely to the first part; the\u003cbr\u003elast chapter of the _Ethics_ points forward to the _Politics_, and\u003cbr\u003esketches for that part of the treatise the order of enquiry to be\u003cbr\u003epursued (an order which in the actual treatise is not adhered to).\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe principle of distribution of the subject-matter between the two\u003cbr\u003eworks is far from obvious, and has been much debated. Not much can be\u003cbr\u003egathered from their titles, which in any case were not given to them by\u003cbr\u003etheir author. Nor do these titles suggest any very compact unity in the\u003cbr\u003eworks to which they are applied: the plural forms, which survive so\u003cbr\u003eoddly in English (Ethic_s_, Politic_s_), were intended to indicate the\u003cbr\u003etreatment within a single work of a _group_ of connected questions. The\u003cbr\u003eunity of the first group arises from their centring round the topic of\u003cbr\u003echaracter, that of the second from their connection with the existence\u003cbr\u003eand life of the city or state. We have thus to regard the _Ethics_ as\u003cbr\u003edealing with one group of problems and the _Politics_ with a second,\u003cbr\u003eboth falling within the wide compass of Political Science. Each of these\u003cbr\u003egroups falls into sub-groups which roughly correspond to the several\u003cbr\u003ebooks in each work. The tendency to take up one by one the various\u003cbr\u003eproblems which had suggested themselves in the wide field obscures both\u003cbr\u003ethe unity of the subject-matter and its proper articulation. But it is\u003cbr\u003eto be remembered that what is offered us is avowedly rather an enquiry\u003cbr\u003ethan an exposition of hard and fast doctrine.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNevertheless each work aims at a relative completeness, and it is\u003cbr\u003eimportant to observe the relation of each to the other. The distinction\u003cbr\u003eis not that the one treats of Moral and the other of Political\u003cbr\u003ePhilosophy, nor again that the one deals with the moral activity of the\u003cbr\u003eindividual and the other with that of the State, nor once more that the\u003cbr\u003eone gives us the theory of human conduct, while the other discusses its\u003cbr\u003eapplication in practice, though not all of these misinterpretations are\u003cbr\u003eequally erroneous. The clue to the right interpretation is given by\u003cbr\u003eAristotle himself, where in the last chapter of the _Ethics_ he is\u003cbr\u003epaving the way for the _Politics_. In the _Ethics_ he has not confined\u003cbr\u003ehimself to the abstract or isolated individual, but has always thought\u003cbr\u003eof him, or we might say, in his social and political context, with a\u003cbr\u003egiven nature due to race and heredity and in certain surroundings.\u003cbr\u003eSo viewing him he has studied the nature and formation of his\u003cbr\u003echaracter--all that he can make himself or be made by others to be.\u003cbr\u003eEspecially he has investigated the various admirable forms of human\u003cbr\u003echaracter and the mode of their production. But all this, though it\u003cbr\u003ebrings more clearly before us what goodness or virtue is, and how it is\u003cbr\u003eto be reached, remains mere theory or talk. By itself it does not\u003cbr\u003eenable us to become, or to help others to become, good. For this it is\u003cbr\u003enecessary to bring into play the great force of the Political Community\u003cbr\u003eor State, of which the main instrument is Law. Hence arises the demand\u003cbr\u003efor the necessary complement to the _Ethics, i.e._, a treatise devoted\u003cbr\u003eto the questions which centre round the enquiry; by what organisation\u003cbr\u003eof social or political forces, by what laws or institutions can we best\u003cbr\u003esecure the greatest amount of good character?","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47071253168368,"sku":"2940016116235","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940016116235","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}