Book VI Summary and Analysis

Aristotle returns to a remark made in Book II about the state of the soul and the role of reason. He has already shown that it is best to strive toward the intermediate condition to be virtuous, and that one determines the intermediate condition by correct reason. He has not shown yet, he explains, how this correct reason comes about. In Book II, Aristotle enumerates the virtues of character, which he then proceeds to define further. He mentions at that time that there are virtues of thought as well, which he would address in the following section.

Aristotle first returns to his division of the soul between the part with reason and the nonrational part. He proposes a further division of the part with reason into two parts, one called the scientific part and one the "rationally calculating" part...