ABSTRACT
Aristotle, the author of Nicomachean Ethics, was a philosopher of ancient Greece. Aristotle devoted his life to learning, investigating nature, and passing on this knowledge to students. Much of Aristotle's work focused on ethics, or the study of right and wrong, and Nicomachean Ethics, named after his father, is a timeless philosophical classic. Nicomachean Ethics investigates the question of what a good human life is. In answering this question, Aristotle argues that a good life is one conducted according to the function or purpose of human nature. Aristotle believes that mankind's highest function is eudaimonia— happiness, or flourishing. For Aristotle, the proper exercise of theoretical and practical reason was a question of recognizing the middle way between extremes of action and character; practical reason demands that people be neither cowardly nor rash in the face of danger. The impact of Nicomachean Ethics and of Aristotle's arguments is perhaps unparalleled in the history of philosophy.
