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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 sort of friendship is VIII.12 concerned?

2. What is the impasse Aristotle confronts in IX.8?

3. What does the continent person have, by Aristotle's estimation, that the temperate person does not?

4. With what is the second part of the reasoning part of the soul concerned in the view of Aristotle?

5. In X.1, Aristotle says that people educate the young by what two means?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. Through the possession of what virtue, according to Aristotle, is man said to have possession of all the intellectual virtues, at least to some degree, and why?

3. Give an example of something affirmed by knowledge, as that which cannot be otherwise than it is.

4. What does Aristotle intend to convey by comparing vice to the disease of consumption (tuberculosis)?

5. What is one reason Aristotle gives for which someone ought not to treat former friends in some way different than strangers if the friendship was dissolved to to an excess of vice?

6. Why does Aristotle state that there is a virtue connected with art, but that practical judgment is itself an end?

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

8. For Aristotle, in what way is a neutral or idle state detrimental to many individuals' moral character?

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

10. Explain the relationship Aristotle makes note of between affirming and denying in thinking and pursuing, and avoiding in desiring.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

Amidst virtues that seem more magnificent, oftentimes Aristotle's considerations of the virtue of good humor--sometimes called ready wit--are glossed over. Analyze this virtue in a thoughtful essay, examining the importance of humor to an individual and to society. What constitutes the virtue of good humor? What are the vices in opposition to it? Why are these vices detrimental to individuals and society as a whole? Why is good humor important to society? How does humor aid man in seeking his ethically-proper end?

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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