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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. With what is the virtue that Aristotle describes in IV.4 concerned?

2. Aristotle states that the good of one person is also, to a different degree, the good of what according to I.2?

3. How many types of virtue does Aristotle claim exist at the beginning of Book II?

4. Which of the following words least accurately describes the virtue that is the topic of IV.5?

5. What, in the observations of Aristotle, becomes of a man who is given the power to rule and gives himself more of what is good in itself?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. The magnanimous man is concerned with what things and in what manner, according to Aristotle?

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

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

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

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. According to Aristotle, in what way is justice reciprocal, and why?

8. How does Aristotle characterize those who are rash?

9. What characterizes Aristotle's distinction between "willing" and "choice"?

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

A rather interesting part of Aristotle's Ethics is where he describes the relationship between law and justice: for all justice is, in a sense, lawful, but not all laws are just. In a careful interpretative essay, examine this relationship according to the text of Aristotle. What is the nature of law? What is the nature of justice? How do they influence one another? From where do laws come? From where should laws come? Why does justice operate through law?

Essay Topic 2

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?

Essay Topic 3

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?

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