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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. What is a suitable category, in Aristotle's view, in which to place the feeling of shame?

2. In addition to the life of pleasure and the life of politics, what is the third sort of life that Aristotle mentions?

3. By human excellence, Aristotle means what?

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

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. Why does Aristotle say that the things deliberated about are not ends?

2. What is the proper distinction Aristotle makes between things that are good in themselves and things that are good only in a derivative sense? Illustrate this distinction by means of an example.

3. Explain what is meant by Aristotle in saying that youth should not be involved in the study or practice of politics.

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

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

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

7. What is the distinction Aristotle makes between magnificence and generosity?

8. What is the significance of the quasi-virtues mentioned by Aristotle in the last part of II.7?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

As that which rightly governs man's being, it can be reasonably stated that practical judgment is the most important of all virtues. Compose an essay which analyzes the virtue of practical judgment. In what does it consist? Why is it a virtue? What other virtues are entailed in its being possessed? How is it superior to other virtues? What is its end?

Essay Topic 2

Throughout the Ethics, the topic of man's volitional powers frequently becomes relevant to the subject at hand. Compose an analytical essay which considers the relationship of man's will to his virtue, particularly regarding the topics of friendship and justice. Why is man's will important to these topics? What is the role of man's volitional powers in his pursuit of virtue? How does man's will relate to his states of moral character? How does it relate to his friendships? Why is it important to the enacting of justice?

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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