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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. In what way does Aristotle claim the incontinent person is unlike the vicious?

2. How many powers of the soul does Aristotle claim disclose truth by discursive reasoning?

3. Amongst what age group does Aristotle report observing friendships forming less frequently?

4. Without what power of the soul does Aristotle state there cannot be a governing part of the soul?

5. Whom does Aristotle cite as saying that those who claim that favor-doers are more loving than favor-receivers say so from a debased point of view?

Short Essay Questions

1. Explain the distinction of Aristotle between having goodwill and having friendship that Aristotle points to in IX.5.

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

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

4. According to Aristotle, why ought a good person be a lover of himself and a bad person not?

5. What is the essential unity that Aristotle claims between knowledge and action in the person possessed of practical judgment?

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

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

8. In what way does Aristotle agree with Socrates concerning knowledge and moral action?

9. Why is it difficult, in the opinion of Aristotle, for a person to have many close and virtuous friends?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What good is understanding a particular virtue if the concept of virtue itself is not understood? Compose an analytical essay which examines the very roots of virtuosity itself, starting with the relationship between particular virtues and Aristotle's conception of it as a mean condition between two extremes. To what does virtue relate? How is that to which virtue is related suspect to extremes of excess and deficiency? What is the essence of virtue itself? What are some particular examples by which this essence is demonstrated?

Essay Topic 2

Compose an analytical essay which insightfully compares and contrasts the states of moral character of those whose souls are in conditions of self-restraint and a lack of restraint. How are they related to the other states of character? How are they related to one another? With what sort of things do they struggle? How do they improve or worsen their conditions? What do they demonstrate about the nature of virtuous action and human desires?

Essay Topic 3

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?

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