Notes from Book 3, Chapters 2-6 of Nicomachean Ethics

Book 3, Chapter 2

• Voluntary action stems from desire and passion.
• All actions are either voluntary or involuntary.
• Choice is related to voluntary action but isn't the same as wish, spiritedness or opinion.
• Choice is not wish because:
  • Choice doesn't concern impossibilities (wishing for immortality).
  • Wish can be for things not in one's control (actor winning), while choice involves actions one can do.
  • Wish is related to the end, while choice relates to the means to that end (wishing to be healthy vs. choosing to exercise).
  • Choice concerns things that are up to us.
• Choice is not spiritedness or desire because:
  • Spiritedness and desire are innate, whereas people are praised or blamed for their choices.
  • Acting from choice implies a moral evaluation, whereas acting from desire does not necessarily.
  • Desire can be for pleasant things, while choice can involve things that are painful.
• Choice is not opinion because:
  • Opinion concerns all matters (eternal, impossible), while choice concerns what's up to us.
  • Opinion is divided into true and false, while choice is divided into good and bad.
  • We are judged by the choices we make, not by our opinions.
  • Choice involves taking or avoiding, while opinion is about what something is.
  • Choice is praised for being directed at what it ought to be, while opinion is praised for truth.
  • We choose what we know is best, but opine about what we don't know well.
  • People may opine what is better but choose what they ought not, due to vice.
• Choice is something voluntary, specifically an object of prior deliberation.
• Choice seems to be something voluntary, but what is voluntary is wider than choice.

Book 3, Chapter 3

• Deliberation involves things that are up to us and subject to action.
• Deliberation does not concern:
  • Eternal things (cosmos).
  • Things that always occur in the same way (solstices, sunrises).
  • Things that vary (droughts, rains) or arise from chance (treasure).
  • Other people's affairs (how Scythians govern).
  • Sciences with precision (writing).
• Deliberation occurs in matters unclear in outcome and where there's uncertainty.
• We seek counselors for important matters due to distrust in our own judgment.
• Deliberation concerns means, not ends.
• The process of deliberation:
  • Set the end.
  • Examine how and through what things it will exist.
  • If there are multiple ways, examine the easiest and noblest.
  • If only one means, examine how it comes about through that means.
  • Continue until the first cause, which is last in the process of discovery.
• Deliberation involves investigation and analysis, similar to geometry.
• If something is impossible, it's left aside.
• Possible things are those that could come to be through us (or our friends).
• Sometimes we seek instruments, sometimes the use of them.
• Deliberation is concerned with actions that happen through one's own doing, for the sake of something else.
• Deliberation isn't about particular facts that are evident to sense perception, because that would lead to an infinite regress.
• The object of choice is the same as the object of deliberation, only already determined.
• Choice is a longing marked by deliberation for something up to us; a deliberative longing.

Book 3, Chapter 4

• The serious person judges each case correctly, and what appears to him is true.
• Deception occurs due to pleasure, where not-good appears as good.
• People choose pleasure as good and avoid pain as bad.

Book 3, Chapter 5

• Wish is for the end; deliberation and choice are means to the end.
• Virtue and vice are up to us because acting and not acting are up to us.
• Doing noble and shameful things is up to us; therefore, being decent or base is up to us.
• The saying "no one is voluntarily wicked or involuntarily blessed" is partly false and partly true.
• No one is involuntarily blessed, but corruption is voluntary.
• Humans are the origin and begetter of their actions.
• Lawgivers punish corrupt actions and honor noble ones to exhort and punish.
• Lawgivers punish ignorance itself if someone is the cause.
• Drunkenness and carelessness leading to ignorance are punished.
• People are causes of their own unjust and licentious behavior through vicious activities and indulgence.
• Corresponding characteristics come from engaging in activities.
• Not knowing this is insensible.
• If someone is sick voluntarily (through lack of self-restraint), it was once possible not to be sick, but no longer.
• Vices of the soul and, for some, of the body are voluntary and subject to censure.
• Vices due to nature aren't censured, but those from lack of care are.
• It's unreasonable to say someone who commits injustice doesn't wish to be unjust.
• Doing things leading to injustice makes one voluntarily unjust. Wishing to cease being unjust doesn't make one just.
• People aim at what appears good, but they don't control that appearance.
• Each person is a cause of their own character and appearance of the good.
• Otherwise, no one would be a cause of their bad actions.
• Instead, one must be born with the vision to judge nobly and grasp the true good.

Book 3, Chapter 6

• If virtue is voluntary, how is it different from vice?
• The end appears to be set by nature for both good and bad people.
• However, if the serious person does all else voluntarily, their virtue is voluntary.
• Similarly, the bad person's actions are traceable to them, even if the end isn't.
• The virtues are voluntary, and we are joint causes of our characteristics.
• The vices are also voluntary, as is similar to the virtues.
• Virtues are means and characteristics, productive of actions, voluntary, and aligned with correct reason.
• Actions are voluntary from beginning to end, with knowledge of particulars.
• Characteristics are voluntary at the beginning, but growth isn't noticed, like illnesses.
• Because it was once in our power, characteristics are voluntary.
• Courage is a mean with respect to fear and confidence.
• We fear bad things like disgrace, poverty, sickness, friendlessness, and death.
• The courageous man fears what he should and for the right reason and end.
• He who fears disgrace is decent and modest.
• He who fears nothing is mad or insensible.
• Facing dangers for honor shows courage, but mercenaries do it for money.
• Experience in particular matters shows courage regarding those matters.
• The courageous man isn't fearless in all circumstances.
• He faces frightening things for what is noble.
• One who fears violence against his children is not a coward.
• One who is not afraid to be flogged is not courageous.
• Some men are courageous in war, because of their experience facing dangers.
• True courage involves facing what brings death suddenly and is in one's own doing.
• Those who are courageous in the authoritative sense do not despair of their present life, since sailors at sea despair of death.