ABSTRACT
Kierkegaard knew Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. This we can safely infer from the following excerpt of a note on Aristotle from 1842:
His Ethics falls into the following parts: Books 1-3 on the good, on virtue, and a number of other inquiries; Books 4-5 the development of the moral virtues, i.e., the virtues bearing on the irrational part of the soul: courage, moderation, magnanimity ἐλευθεριότης, justice. The 6th Book on the intellectual virtues: τέχνη [skill, craft], ἐπιστήμη [knowledge, science], σωφροσύνη [moderation], νοῦς [intelligence, intuition], σοφία [wisdom]. Here A.[ristotle] no longer uses his observation on the μεσότης [intermediacy] of virtue. The 7th Book on abstinence etc., pleasure. The 8th Book on friendship; the 9th Book on friendship. The 10th Book on pleasure.1
