... possible conditions ". . . we will perhaps grasp better what sort of political system is best. . ." By "the collected political systems" (Nicomachean Ethics X.9.1181b17), Aristotle means a collection of constitutional histories of 158 Greek city-states which Aristotle had prepared as a basis for his lectures on politics; by comparison, the United Nations currently recognizes only 174 independent nation-states on earth today ... the city exists by nature. [COMMENTS: (1) By a self-sufficient life, as he points out in the Nicomachean Ethics (I.7.1097b8-17, X.7.1177a28-b2), Aristotle does not...

• Word Count: 1587
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... concerned with those bodily indulgences] to excess and avoids excessive pains not from rational choice but in opposition to it and his thinking, is called incontinent " (1148a, Nicomachean Ethics). Aristotle condemns those who are ruled by desire and suffer from wantonness. He argues one should desire to abstain from bodily desires and that higher forms of pleasure are concomitant with ... theory, they have all committed severe injustices that result in one party gaining unfairly over the other. Aristotle and Dante both condemn these sins of rectificatory injustice. It seems clear that D...

• Word Count: 2364
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... prudent person would define it. It is a mean between two vices, one of excess and one of deficiency" (Nicomachean Ethics 269). This conclusion is the basis for Aristotle's doctrine of the mean, as well as the significance Aristotle places in prudence. In book VI (Nicomachean Ethics), Aristotle combines his examination of virtue with his examination of the two parts of the soul mentioned earlier. Just as ... excess and deficiency. This middle ground, relatively speaking, is where virtue is found, and a virtuous state is the one that best leads to truth (Nicomachean Ethics 308). A contempl...

• Word Count: 2653
• Approx Pages: 11
• Grade Level: Undergraduate