Nicomachean Ethics - Book II (Chapter 1-9) Flashcards

A set of vocabulary-style flashcards covering key terms and concepts from Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, Book II, focusing on how virtue is formed, what the mean is, and the major virtues and related ideas.

Virtue (ethical virtue)

Excellence of character; a state formed by habit, consisting of two forms: intellectual virtue (from teaching) and moral virtue (from habituation); moral virtue aims at the mean in desires and actions.

Habit (habituation)

The process by which moral virtues are developed through repeated virtuous actions, so that one becomes just, temperate, or courageous by doing such things.

Hexis (active state)

A stable, motivating condition (an active state or disposition) that arises from habituation and guides how one acts.

Intellectual virtue

Virtues of the mind acquired through teaching and experience, e.g., wisdom; contrasted with moral virtue, which arises from habit.

Moral virtue

Virtues of character formed by habit, such as courage and temperance, concerned with choosing the mean in actions and feelings.

Right reason in actions (practical judgment; phronesis)

The practical wisdom that guides action in concrete situations; not a fixed rule, but the ability to determine what to do given the circumstances.

The Mean (mesotes)

The intermediate state between excess and deficiency; virtue is a mean relative to us and determined by practical judgment.

Excess

Beyond the proper mean; a surplus in feeling or action that moves away from virtue (e.g., rashness as excess of courage).

Deficiency

Too little of a feeling or action; an insufficiency that moves away from virtue (e.g., cowardice as deficiency of courage).

Courage

Mean between rashness and cowardice; the virtue of facing fear appropriately.

Temperance

Mean between indulgence in pleasures and insensitivity to them; mastery over bodily pleasures.

Generosity

Mean in giving and taking money; neither prodigal nor stingy, but giving in accordance with circumstances.

Magnificence

Mean in spending large sums for noble purposes; excess is gaudiness or vulgarity, deficiency is chintziness; requires proportion to wealth.

Greatness of soul (great-souled; megalopsuchia)

Mean regarding honors; not vainly craving fame nor despising it—worth pursuing honors fit for a person of character.

Passion for honor

Appetite for honor; mean is a properly balanced desire for recognition, with excess called vanity and deficiency called lack of honor.

Truthfulness

Mean in speech; speaking about oneself and one’s actions honestly, neither boastful nor self-deprecating.

Buffoonery

Excessively playful or ostentatious behavior in social settings; a vice of excess in pleasantness.

Boorishness

Insensitivity or lack of refinement; the deficiency side of sociable behavior.

Charm

Mean in pleasant sociability; appropriate sociability that avoids buffoonery or boorishness.

Shame

A sense of propriety about social conduct; mean is a healthy sense of shame, while excessive shame is paralyzing and shamelessness is a vice.

Righteous indignation (nemesis)

A virtuous anger at injustice; a mean between rejoicing at others’ misfortune and envy.

Justice (distributive and corrective)

Mean conditions governing fairness; two kinds of justice (distributive and corrective) involve distributing benefits and rectifying wrongs.

Pleasures and pains

Powers that accompany actions and shape virtue; virtue concerns choosing what is pleasant and painful in the right way and at the right time.

Education (right upbringing)

Proper formation of character from childhood; essential to cultivate virtue and align desires with the mean.

Moral choice (prohairesis)

Deliberate moral choice that underlies virtue; requires knowledge, volition, and stable character to act for the right reason.