Aristotele
Etica Nicomachea

Aristotle. For many, the greatest thinker of humanity.

Legend has it that in his youth he was quite the pleasure-seeker. Two sole thoughts: vices and excesses. At least until his conversion to philosophy at Plato’s Academy – where he soon surpassed the master. “Friend of Plato, but much more a friend of the truth”.
From idler to workaholic. It is said that at night, to stay awake, he would hold a steel ball in his hand. When he fell asleep, the ball would drop on a piece of metal he had placed on the floor. The noise it made would wake him, allowing him to return to his studies.

What the indefatigable genius of Stagira has left us (in Metaphysics, Logic, Physics, Biology, Politics, and Morality) has left posterity of every age in awe. Saint Thomas Aquinas (in the 1200s) would reformulate the entire Christian thought on the great Aristotelian achievements. In his “Summa Theologica,” the great saint would call Aristotle “the Philosopher,” quoting him more often than the Christian thinkers themselves.

The “Nicomachean Ethics” is the masterpiece of moral philosophy by the great Greek thinker. The center of all Aristotelian ethics is the practice of “virtue.” Virtue – from “vir,” male – is the (virile) act of the will that opposes vice. Where with “will” Aristotle means love for the good and the beautiful.

Virtue makes good whoever practices it. And only if one becomes good can one hope to become intelligent, because:
- “No one can be wise without being good.”

It is virtue that enlightens the mind – not the other way around. Right acting precedes right thinking. Often, what we call “thinking” is nothing more than our lazy “letting the mind wander.” And letting the mind wander has the only effect of making us believe the first thing that comes to mind.

If no lazy person can be a philosopher, even less can a vicious one be. If laziness deadens the intellect, vices blind it completely. He who lives by his instincts without controlling himself is a two-legged beast; and beasts do not think. If you seek happiness and truth, control yourself and practice virtue. Here is the legacy of the great Master. They might seem like the words of a bigoted priest; yet they are the (very current) words of a pagan.

Aristotle’s philosophy has been described as “perennial philosophy”. To challenge these immutable truths is just to fool ourselves. Like our time, which has turned vice into virtue and virtue into vice.

A few euros and this perennial masterpiece of “practical reason” will be in your hands. And if you truly put it into practice, it will change your life.