12 h 44 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 12 h 44 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if happiness is not how you feel, but how you live?
In The Ethics of Aristotle, also called the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle asks what makes a human life go well. He begins with the idea that every action aims at some good. Happiness, he argues, is not a passing mood. It is a life of activity lived well, shaped by the choices we make.
From happiness, Aristotle turns to character: how we become brave, fair, generous and wise. He explores habits, responsibility, justice and practical wisdom, then faces a familiar puzzle: why do people act against their better judgment? Pleasure and friendship also have their place in this searching account of how to live.
What you’ll discover
- Happiness beyond a mood Consider a good life through what you do, rather than how you happen to feel.
- Character built through habit Explore why becoming brave, fair and generous takes more than good intentions.
- Responsibility and fair dealing Examine when actions are our responsibility, and how justice concerns both sharing and repair.
- Knowing better, doing otherwise Face the gap between judgment and action through Aristotle’s account of weakness of will.
- Friendship and living well Discover why Aristotle gives friendship a central place in his account of a good life.
Who will love it
Readers who enjoy clear thinking about how to live, character, friendship and fairness will love this book. It also suits those drawn to the roots of Western moral philosophy.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Every action aims at a final good
- Happiness is excellent activity of the soul
- A happy life needs a whole life and some luck
- Virtue comes from habit, not from talk
- Virtue is a mean found by judgment
- We are responsible for what we choose
- Justice means fairness, law and equity
- Practical wisdom joins thinking and character
- Friendship is a need and a school of virtue
- Pleasure and contemplation crown the good life
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Ética de Aristóteles
by Aristóteles
Aristotle asks what a good human life is and answers with habit, judgment, friendship and thoughtful activity.
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In short
What is a good life for a human being, and how do you actually get one? Aristotle puts this question to his listeners in The Ethics, and he does not answer with a rule book.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Every action aims at a final good
Aristotle opens with a simple observation. Every art, every science and every choice seems to aim at some good. Medicine aims at health, shipbuilding at a ship, and generalship at victory.
But these ends often serve something further. A bridle serves horsemanship, horsemanship serves war, and war serves the city. If we always chose for the sake of something else, desire would run on without limit. So there must be one end we want for its own sake, and everything else is wanted for its sake.
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- 15-minute summary
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Details
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Cite this edition
Aristotle. The Ethics of Aristotle. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-ethics-of-aristotle.
Aristotle. (2026). The ethics of Aristotle. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-ethics-of-aristotle (Original work published ca. 340 B.C.E.)
Aristotle. The Ethics of Aristotle. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-ethics-of-aristotle.
@book{aristotle2026ethics,
author = {Aristotle},
title = {The Ethics of Aristotle},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-ethics-of-aristotle},
note = {First published ca. 340 BCE}
}
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What is Aristotle's Ethics about?
It asks what the best life for a human being is and how to reach it. Aristotle answers with happiness as activity in line with virtue, shaped by habit, judgment, justice, friendship and reflection.
What is the golden mean in Aristotle?
It is the idea that virtue lies between excess and deficiency. Courage, for example, sits between recklessness and cowardice. The mean is relative to the person and the situation, and judgment finds it.
What does eudaimonia or happiness mean in the Ethics?
Aristotle means a flourishing life, not a passing mood. It is excellent activity of the soul over a complete life, with enough external goods such as friends and means to act well.
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