Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics Quiz

Eudaimonia

Aristotle's term for happiness, meaning flourishing, fulfillment, and living successfully.

Telos

The Greek term for the end, goal, or purpose of an action.

Function Argument

The philosophical argument that humans are good when they perform their distinctive function, which is rational activity, well.

Energeia

Aristotle's term for activity; happiness is an active way of living rather than a passive feeling.

Hexis

A stable state, disposition, or settled tendency of character.

Doctrine of the Mean

Aristotle's theory that moral virtue generally lies as the appropriate mean between the extremes of excess and deficiency.

Intellectual Virtue

Excellence of the mind learned primarily through instruction and teaching.

Moral Virtue

Excellence of character developed through habit, practice, and repetition.

Voluntary Action

An action that originates with the agent and is performed with control, making the person responsible.

Involuntary Action

An action resulting from genuine physical compulsion or relevant particular ignorance, reducing or removing responsibility.

Deliberation

Rational reasoning about the means to achieve a desired end or goal.

Courage

The virtuous mean between cowardice (excessive fear) and rashness (insufficient fear).

Temperance

The virtuous mean concerning physical and bodily pleasures, lying between insensibility and licentiousness.

Liberality

The virtue concerning the appropriate giving and spending of ordinary amounts of money.

Magnificence

The virtue involving the appropriate spending of large sums of money, especially on public or community projects.

Magnanimity

Greatness of soul; properly recognizing one's own worthiness of great honors.

Amiability

The social virtue of behaving pleasantly and appropriately toward others without obsequiousness or quarrelsomeness.

Truthfulness

The virtue of accurately representing oneself without boastfulness or self-deprecation.

Wit

The virtue of appropriate, tactful humor in conversation, lying between boorishness and buffoonery.

Universal Justice

General lawfulness and the practice of complete virtue in one's relations with others.

Distributive Justice

Fair distribution of goods, wealth, and honors according to geometric proportion and merit.

Rectificatory Justice

Justice that corrects an unfair gain or loss in voluntary or involuntary transactions between two parties.

Natural Justice

Rules of justice that have a basis in nature and universal validity.

Conventional Justice

Justice established by specific human laws, agreements, and customs that can vary by location.

Equity

A correction to the literal application of general laws when specific, complex circumstances make strict application unfair.

Friendship of Utility

An accidental friendship based on mutual benefit and usefulness, ending when the benefit stops.

Friendship of Pleasure

An accidental friendship based on mutual enjoyment, entertainment, or shared interests.

Friendship of Goodness

The highest, most stable form of friendship based on mutual appreciation of virtue and character.

Monarchy

Rule by one person for the common good, whose corrupt counterpart is tyranny.

Aristocracy

Rule by the few most virtuous citizens, whose corrupt counterpart is oligarchy.