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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 principally occupies the topic of discussion in X.6?

2. In the loving of what does Aristotle state there is no reciprocity, in VIII.2?

3. In what sort of friendship are there no complaints, according to the view of Aristotle?

4. What person does Aristotle claim most notably feels love just in knowing a person, and not in receiving love returned?

5. About what, concerning the virtues, might one raise a problem, as Aristotle states in VI.12?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Aristotle end his discussion of ethics by beginning a discussion of politics?

2. Why do friendships of utility quickly come about and subsequently dissolve, according to Aristotle?

3. In what way, for Aristotle, do the pursuits of actions in accord with the virtues that pertain to politics and war differ from those that pertain to contemplation?

4. Why does Aristotle state that words concerning feelings and actions are less believable than actions themselves?

5. Why does Aristotle state that politics and practical judgment cannot be the highest or most serious things for man's consideration?

6. What is meant by Aristotle saying that pleasures from different sources can be impediments to activities?

7. Why does Aristotle state that pleasure is not a motion?

8. For Aristotle, in what does the relationship between man's nature and his need for friends consist?

9. What characterizes the blame put upon people who are in animal-like conditions, according to Aristotle's perspective?

10. What is the Aristotelian relationship between happiness, the gods, human beings, and animals, as discussed in X.8?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

Oftentimes, a true friend is considered to be, in a certain sense, a second self. Compose an essay which considers this claim in the context of Aristotle's examination of friendship. What would it mean for someone to be a second self? How is true friendship related to others? How is friendship related to the self? In what sort of acts does one treat another as though a second self? What characterizes these acts?

Essay Topic 3

In Book X of the Ethics, Aristotle discusses at some length the relationship between pleasure and true happiness. Compose an essay which discusses the nature of this relationship, explicating how the two are intertwined with one another. What is true pleasure? What is true happiness? In what sort of activities do true pleasure and true happiness consist? How is Aristotle's opinion different from those who preceded him? Is Aristotle's opinion superior? If so why, and if not, why not?

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