ABSTRACT
This chapter conducts a quick tour of a central work by Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics. Aristotle's theory of ethics provides a powerful contrast to the tradition of moral theory that gave rise to the ethics of duty and provides important insights into what is at issue in living well. Aristotles understanding of ethics has more to do with what makes life worth living than with obedience to the moral law. He identified four parts of the soul as making up a full human being. These were the vegetative, the appetitive, the deliberative and the contemplative. Aristotle distinguishes the vegetative and appetitive parts of the soul from the rational part. The vegetative level of our existence is what we would describe today as the biological functioning of our bodies. It consists in those many processes of growth, metabolism, blood circulation and so forth that make up the dynamic operation of our bodily existence.
