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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What sort of person is opposite, in the opinion of Aristotle, the person who is soft?

2. What does the continent person have, by Aristotle's estimation, that the temperate person does not?

3. Who, in the view of Aristotle, is incapable of having the sort of friendship described in IX.4?

4. Aristotle states that food is more pleasant than gold to what?

5. What is a fitting word for the capacity that Aristotle describes as allowing people to easily achieve one's goal or object?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why is it that having friends in a time of one's good fortune is, in the philosophy of Aristotle, more beautiful than in other times?

2. Explain the distinction of Aristotle between having goodwill and having friendship that Aristotle points to in IX.5.

3. What is meant by Aristotle saying that pleasures from different sources can be impediments to activities?

4. Explain Aristotle's distinction between affection and friendship.

5. Explain the distinction, and its significance, between Socrates and Aristotle on the relationship between knowledge and moral action.

6. Why does Aristotle end his discussion of ethics by beginning a discussion of politics?

7. What would it mean, for Aristotle, to describe a sort of friendship as being a hybrid?

8. What is one reason Aristotle gives for which someone ought not to treat former friends in some way different than strangers if the friendship was dissolved to to an excess of vice?

9. Give an example of something affirmed by knowledge, as that which cannot be otherwise than it is.

10. Why is it difficult, in the opinion of Aristotle, for a person to have many close and virtuous friends?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Oftentimes, a true friend is considered to be, in a certain sense, a second self. Compose an essay which considers this claim in the context of Aristotle's examination of friendship. What would it mean for someone to be a second self? How is true friendship related to others? How is friendship related to the self? In what sort of acts does one treat another as though a second self? What characterizes these acts?

Essay Topic 2

Of the moral virtues, none stands in higher regard than that of one's greatness of soul. Analyze Aristotle's presentation of the great-souled man in a careful and thorough essay, considering both what greatness of soul is in itself and its relationship to all of the other virtues. How does it relate to temperance, courage, generosity, and any of the other moral virtues? How is it related to the intellectual virtues? What are some specific examples of a great-souled man? How does a great-souled man react in specific situations? What makes such a person exemplary for others?

Essay Topic 3

Though not addressed as explicitly in the Ethics, a persistent topic around which much of Aristotle's philosophical inquiry circles is the relationship between friendship and the community. Analyze this topic in a carefully developed essay, considering both the way in which friendship influences the community and how community influences friendships. What is the effect of virtuous, true friendships on a community? Upon what principles do such friendships exist, and why are these important to a solid community? What are the conditions of the community that help create such friendships? In what way are these two things reciprocal in terms of giving to one another?

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