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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Deliberation is, for Aristotle, principally about the things to be done by whom?

2. With which of the following is politics imminently concerned, as described by Aristotle in I.3?

3. Aristotle states that one suffers injustice willingly in what situation?

4. Which of the following most accurately describes the behavior of one of the vices Aristotle discusses in IV.6?

5. What sort of person is he who brings food fit for a wedding to a small dinner, according to Aristotle?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Aristotle characterize those who are rash?

2. What sort of ruler becomes a tyrant, according to Aristotle's observations?

3. What does Aristotle mean by saying that every art, inquiry, action, and choice aims at some good?

4. What are the conditions Aristotle gives for properly calling someone happy in Book I, Chapter 9, and why does he give these?

5. Why is doing injustice worse than suffering injustice, from Aristotle's perspective?

6. What does Aristotle mean by saying that a virtue is an active condition or state of the soul?

7. What is the relationship of virtues to extremes of excess and deficiency in the philosophy of Aristotle?

8. What is Aristotle's distinction between the sort of injustice that is unlawful and the sort of injustice that is inequitable?

9. What is the relationship that Aristotle cites as existing between opposites in coming to know what is or is not the right way for a thing to be, such as health?

10. In what way does Aristotle state that it is impossible for one to do injustice to himself?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Compose an analytical essay which presents a clear thesis on some aspect of justice as Aristotle discusses it in Book V of the Nicomachean Ethics. Be sure to answer the following:

-What is justice?

-Why is justice a virtue?

-What is unique about justice as a virtue?

Essay Topic 2

Truly vicious men are rare, though not so rare as truly virtuous men. Most men exist in one or another state of struggle. Examine this struggle, that which is experienced by both the man of self-restraint and the unrestrained man, in regards to the pleasures with which all men are concerned, in a thoughtful and well-organized critical essay. Why are only these two states of character truly states of struggle? How do they confront these struggles? What emotions, feelings, and reactions accompany these struggles? With what do these men struggle? What characterizes the pleasures that are most likely to cause a man to struggle?

Essay Topic 3

Oftentimes, examining a thing's contrariness is helpful in understanding the thing itself: consequently, Aristotle speaks at some length on the conditions in which man is found to be consumed with vice. These are scattered throughout the Ethics; in an insightful essay, unite and analyze the nature of vice as it is presented by Aristotle. What characterizes the vicious man? What is the vicious man's relation to knowledge of his actions? Why can the vicious man not engage in true friendships? How is the nature of vice demonstrated through particular examples of the behavior of vicious men?

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