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

2. How many sorts of political justice are there by the count of Aristotle?

3. Who is the source of action, according to Aristotle, of one who acts from spiritedness?

4. For what do praise and blame come about, according to Aristotle in III.1?

5. By doing what, in the opinion of Aristotle, does man make himself a certain sort of person?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

4. What is the distinction between the mean in the thing itself and the mean in relation to a man as Aristotle explains it?

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

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

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

8. In what way does Aristotle claim gentleness (or mildness) is related to the virtues concerned with honor and magnanimity?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The virtue of courage is given significant consideration in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. Analyze this consideration in a thoughtful essay. What are the extremes opposed to courage? To which of these extremes is courage closer, and why? What does this indicate about the nature of virtue as a whole? How does the courageous man react to fearful situations? In what way is courage relative to the individual man?

Essay Topic 2

Near the end of his Ethics, Aristotle states that perfect happiness comes through the act of contemplation, the only activity that man does entirely for its own sake. Analyze this postulation in a very insightful and carefully planned essay. Why is contemplation considered a perfect action? Does this claim seem justified? Why or why not? Why does Aristotle state that the act of contemplation is that in which perfect happiness and perfect pleasure exist?

Essay Topic 3

In many cases, ethical rectitude depends not merely on a bland and level equality between men, but upon a sense of proportionality; justice is not merely ensuring that everyone has the same things, according to Aristotle, but that everyone has that which he is due, according to merit. Examine this claim in a structured analytical essay. Why does Aristotle advocate proper proportionality? In what situations does he advocate it? What are the strengths and weaknesses of his argument? Upon what does his argument depend? Upon what does proportionality depend? What is the relationship between proportionality and the various virtues?

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