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Ethic vs. Nicomachean

Nicomachean Ethics is a philosophical inquiry into the nature of the good life for a human being. Aristotle begins the work by positing that there exists some ultimate good toward which, in the final analysis, all human actions ultimately aim. The necessary characteristics of the ultimate good are that it is complete, final, self-sufficient and continuous. This good toward which all human actions implicity or explicitly aim is happiness�in Greek, "eudaimonia," which can also be translated as blessedness or living well, and which is not a static state of being but a type of activity.

To discover the nature of human happiness it is necessary to determine what the function of a human being is, for a person's happiness will consist in fulfilling the natural function toward which his being is directed. This natural function must be something which is specific to human beings, which is essential to being human. A person is primarily his intellect. While the spirited and desiring parts of the soul are also important, the rational part of the soul is what one can most properly consider a person's identity. The activity which only human beings can perform is intellectual; it is activity of the highest part of the soul (the rational part) according to reason. Human happiness, therefore, consists in activity of the soul according to reason. In practical terms, this activity is expressed through ethical virtue, when a person directs his actions according to reason. The very highest human life, however, consists in contemplation of the greatest goods. More will be said later on this topic, which is the culmination of the Ethics.

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Arete vs. Eudaimonia

According to Aristotle, every living or human-made thing, including its parts, has a unique or characteristic function or activity that distinguishes it from all other things. The highest good of a thing consists of the good performance of its characteristic function, and the virtue or excellence of a thing consists of whatever traits or qualities enable it to perform that function well. (Thus, the virtue or excellence of a knife is whatever enables the good performance of cutting, that of an eye whatever enables the good performance of seeing, and so on.) It follows that eudaimonia consists of the good performance of the characteristic function of human beings, whatever that may be, and human virtue or excellence is that combination of traits or qualities that enables humans to perform that function well. Aristotle believes that the characteristic function of human beings, that which distinguishes them from all other things, is their ability to reason. Accordingly, “if the function of man is an activity of soul which follows or implies a rational principle,” and if the human good is the good performance of that function, then the “human good turns out to be [rational] activity of soul in accordance with virtue,” or rational activity performed virtuously or excellently.
arete is explicitly linked with human knowledge, where the expressions "virtue is knowledge" and "arete is knowledge" are used interchangeably. The highest human potential is knowledge and all other human abilities are derived from this central capacity. If Arete is knowledge and study, the highest human knowledge is knowledge about knowledge itself; in this light, the theoretical study of human knowledge, which Aristotle called "contemplation", is the highest human ability and happiness.

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S&T: Aristotle defined technology as "an arrangement of technics that makes feasible and serves the realization of human purposes." The ability to produce involving thinking is known as techne as productive cognition. Then there's technology knowledge, which is distinct from both common and scientific knowledge.

Good Life: All we want is to live a decent life, which is the utmost good. The good life is the reason we live, according to Arestotle. For this reason, his ideology revolves around the pursuit of happiness, which he refers to as Eudaimonia.

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Pleasure: Pleasure enhances our activities, and since life is an action, it is necessary for survival. Only excellent pleasures are experienced by a good person for the correct reasons.
Happiness: Happiness is our ultimate goal in life as an activity which works as an end in itself. Contemplation is the highest form of bliss.

What is happiness, according to Aristotle? Happiness is not the same as pleasure or virtue. Happiness is contingent on developing a moral character in which the characteristics of courage, generosity, justice, friendship, and citizenship are demonstrated in one's life.

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VIRTUE vs. VICE

Aristotle defines the supreme good as an activity of the rational soul in accordance with virtue. Virtue for the Greeks is equivalent to excellence. A man has virtue as a flautist, for instance, if he plays the flute well, since playing the flute is the distinctive activity of a flautist. A virtuous person is someone who performs the distinctive activity of being human well. We always choose to aim at the good, but people are often ignorant of what is good and so aim at some apparent good instead, which is in fact a vice.

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According to Aristotle, instrumental good and ultimate good are two types of good.

Instrumental Good is a kind of good defined by Aristotle as a means to achieving something else or some other end while the ultimate good also called as the intrinsic good is good in it self. The ultimate good is also better than the instrumental good since the latter is the end in itself, meaning a person does not have to find something else to achieve. Instrumental good on the other hand is only temporary and most of the time a person still finds it unsatisfactory and still wants to achieve

something better.

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Aristotle defines moral virtue as a disposition to behave in the right manner and as a mean between extremes of deficiency and excess, which are vices. We learn moral virtue primarily through habit and practice rather than through reasoning and instruction. While intellectual virtues include: scientific knowledge (episteme), artistic or technical knowledge (techne), intuitive reason (nous), practical wisdom (phronesis), and philosophic wisdom (sophia). Scientific knowledge is a knowledge of what is necessary and universal. The difference come from what type of actions are performed and how they translate into daily life. Moral virtues are exemplified by courage, temperance, and liberality; the key intellectual virtues are wisdom, which governs ethical behaviour, and understanding, which is expressed in scientific endeavour and contemplation.