Nicomachean Ethics essays

Nicomachean Ethics essays What is Aristotles Ethical Philosophy? Aristotle seemed to enjoy placing things into categories. He did this with nearly everything he could come up with. He describes humans as occupies space, reproduces, self-moving, and reasons. These qualities being what separates us from other things like animals, plants and inorganic material. On a much deeper level, Aristotle goes on to say that human beings consist of two things, a body, and a soul and they both depend on one another to survive. Aristotles view of the soul varied radically from what Platos definition was. Plato maintained that the soul and body were both separate entities that once the body died, the soul would return to the world of Forms. Aristotle, on the other hand, maintains that the soul is your bodys life force and that when your body dies, logically so does your soul. Another interesting concept that Aristotle proclaims is that all living things have souls. Every plant, every animal, and human being have souls. This is an extremely interesting concept. Th ere are many who have asked the question as to whether or not animals have emotions. It is possible, though Aristotle never clearly touches on the subject in our text, that one could derive an answer to this question based on Aristotles teachings. One could argue that the soul is the powerhouse of emotions, and thus, if all living things have them, then all living things have emotions. One would have to ask the question to themselves whether they believe in the existence of a soul before reviewing all of Aristotles views on the human being as one unit. Aristotle again breaks things down further for us; he enjoys doing this. He explains that there are three main purposes in human life: Firstly, is that the purpose of human life lies in the world we live. This group would exclude many people because most of the people in the world follow organized religion, and mo...