SOURCE: "Making the City Safe for Philosophy, Book X," in Reading Aristotle's "Ethics," State University of New York Press, 1996, pp. 97-117.

In the following essay, Tessitore examines Book X of Ethics, arguing that in this final book of the treatise, Aristotle offers a concluding statement with regard to happiness. Tessitore notes that Aristotle's conclusion—that perfect happiness may be found in philosophic contemplation, while the practice of ethical virtue offers only a secondary degree of happiness—may seem to conflict with earlier statements Aristotle presented in Book VII. Suggesting that this teaching has been implied throughout the work, Tessitore argues that its harshness is tempered by Aristotle's effort to connect philosophers and non-philosophers through the concept of moral decency, and by his emphasis on the significance of ethical virtue to non-philosophers.

It is only in the final book of his treatise that Aristotle explicitly presents a teaching that...