Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics: Virtue, Balance, and Happiness
This essay examines Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, focusing on his conception of virtue as a mean between extremes, and argues that balance and temperance are essential to achieving happiness. Drawing on Aristotle's discussions of moral virtues — particularly courage, justice, and temperance — as well as his treatment of friendship and nobility, the paper contends that virtuous habits are not mindless routine but active, deliberate choices that cultivate a stable character. The essay also acknowledges a counterargument: that experiencing extremes is necessary to understand and appreciate moderation. Real-world examples illustrate how everyday habits, such as quitting smoking or managing work productivity, embody Aristotelian principles of the mean in practice.
- Introduction: Virtue as Active Balance: Thesis: virtue as active balance yields happiness
- The Mean and Moral Virtue in Aristotle: Explaining the mean, disposition, and moral virtues
- Justice, Nobility, and Friendship: Justice and nobility as the highest moral virtues
- The Counterargument: The Role of Extremes: Experiencing extremes enables true appreciation of balance
- Real-World Examples of the Aristotelian Mean: Bill and Linda illustrate everyday Aristotelian virtue
- Conclusion: Temperance as the Path to Happiness: Temperance through habit leads to lasting happiness
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper grounds abstract Aristotelian concepts in accessible, concrete analogies — the river-and-boat metaphor and the characters Bill and Linda make the mean tangible for readers unfamiliar with classical philosophy.
- It engages honestly with a counterargument, acknowledging that experiencing extremes may be necessary before moderation can be meaningfully understood, which strengthens rather than weakens the thesis.
- The essay moves logically from theoretical exposition (the mean, moral virtues, justice) to practical application, demonstrating how philosophical claims cash out in everyday life.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper uses interpretive framing effectively: rather than simply summarizing Aristotle, it proposes a specific reading — that virtue is "actively held" rather than mindless routine — and then tests that reading against real examples. This technique of offering an interpretive claim and defending it with evidence and analogy is central to philosophical essay writing.
Structure breakdown
The essay opens by establishing its interpretive thesis, then systematically explains the mean, moral virtues, and nobility as Aristotle presents them. A counterargument section concedes the value of experiencing excess before returning to the thesis with two extended real-world examples. The conclusion synthesizes the argument and reaffirms that temperance, sustained through habitual practice, is Aristotle's prescription for happiness.
Introduction: Virtue as Active Balance
When reading Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, people typically place emphasis on the role of habit in conduct. Virtues, or habits, according to Aristotle, are necessary for a good life, and that mindless routine is one way to achieve happiness. While the interpretation of Aristotle's texts may suggest "mindless routine" to many readers, in reality it could mean something closer to "actively holding oneself." This means, essentially, that the manifestation of virtue is in action. Therefore, maintaining balance and practicing a stable equilibrium of the soul can lead to happiness. This stable equilibrium can be understood as character. Under this interpretation, I agree with Aristotle that in order to achieve happiness, one must maintain balance and practice temperance. This essay highlights, through real-world examples, what this balance and temperance look like in practice.
The Mean and Moral Virtue in Aristotle
Virtue, according to Aristotle, is a mean — a way of understanding and judging what is truly painful or pleasant. When the soul is in an active state in which all of its powers work together, this is the mean. Character is the process by which the soul clears away obstacles that may thwart or hinder the soul's full efficacy. To achieve such effective action, one must pursue moral virtue. Moral virtue allows a person to achieve right reason and right desire. To achieve moral virtue, a person must occupy the middle ground, for it is only there — at the point between principles of action and habits of acting — that one can truly exist well.
Virtue, according to Aristotle, is a mixture of both belief and activity, which can be understood as disposition. A virtuous person is one who naturally behaves in a balanced way and feels pleasure appropriately. Virtue exists among the extremes of deficiency and excess, and there is no fixed mean; it can vary according to the individual. Regardless, if one is not naturally virtuous, becoming so is a hard and slow process that requires dedication and patience to sustain the necessary daily routines. This is the relationship between virtue and habit.
Moral virtues are voluntary. There are three principal moral virtues: courage, justice, and temperance. In Book V, Aristotle discusses justice, which can be likened to seeing a chocolate pudding and choosing to share it with others — the fair thing to do — rather than eating it alone. One can choose either option; the choice is voluntary. Interestingly, Aristotle holds that moral virtues share one thing in common: the beautiful. Ultimately, justice is the moral virtue that affects other people and represents a person who possesses all moral virtue. This falls into the concept of the noble.
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