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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. Which of the following aptly describes virtues and vices in a manner consistent with Aristotle's description?

2. According to Aristotle, what is the mean condition between the vices of wastefulness and stinginess?

3. A buffoon is described by Aristotle in IV.8 as someone who goes to extremes in order to make someone else do what?

4. How does Aristotle say the lawmakers ought to treat people who act beautifully?

5. Which sort of political justice is most universal in Aristotle's view?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the relationship that Aristotle claims exists between the virtues of courage and temperance?

2. What does it mean to say, as Aristotle explains it, that nothing can be habituated to be other than it is by nature?

3. Explain Aristotle's distinction between the good and the apparent good, and those who pursue each, as given in III.4.

4. What is the content of the suggestion of Aristotle regarding overcompensation and the acquisition of personal virtue?

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

6. 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?

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

8. From what difficulty, according to Aristotle, does the dispute concerning the nature of happiness, as the end of all actions, arise?

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

10. To which of the vicious extremes is the truthful man closer in disposition and why, according to Aristotle?

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

Of the moral virtues, none stands in higher regard than that of one's greatness of soul. Analyze Aristotle's presentation of the great-souled man in a careful and thorough essay, considering both what greatness of soul is in itself and its relationship to all of the other virtues. How does it relate to temperance, courage, generosity, and any of the other moral virtues? How is it related to the intellectual virtues? What are some specific examples of a great-souled man? How does a great-souled man react in specific situations? What makes such a person exemplary for others?

Essay Topic 3

Of the intellectual virtues, art is the only one inherently ordained for some other end and not at all for itself, for it is concerned entirely with making. Discuss the virtue of art in a thoroughly well-reasoned analytical essay. Why is art a virtue? With what sort of things is art concerned, in particular? What are some specific examples of art as a virtue? Why is art in some way lesser than the other intellectual virtues? Why is art a necessary virtue?

(see the answer keys)

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