Nicomachean Ethics (Aristotle)

Aristotle’s central work of moral philosophy, organized around eudaimonia — human flourishing — as the final end of action, and around virtue as a stable disposition acquired by habit and situated between excess and deficiency. It builds an account of choice, voluntariness and practical wisdom (phronesis), devotes two books to friendship, and ends by arguing that the contemplative life is the highest, while conceding that ethics is completed only by politics — which is where the Politics picks up.

Composed in the fourth century BCE, from lecture material at the Lyceum; the title traditionally refers either to Aristotle’s son Nicomachus or to his father of the same name.

The entry carries a ☑️ on the source list. The page gives no legend for that mark, so it is recorded here only as “marked on the source list” — it is not known to mean read, essential, or start-here.

Why it’s on the list: It sits in the classical Greek sub-section that opens the curriculum, immediately before Aristotle’s Politics — the pairing is the point, since the Ethics is the half that asks what a good life consists of before the Politics asks what a regime should do about it.

Where I saw it: Brendan McCord’s Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List, in the section on Classical Greek Political Philosophy. Shared on X on March 9, 2026 and saved to Kyle’s “Books To Read” Apple Note. The full 211-entry transcription, with the four parts and sixteen sub-sections, is on The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List.

Connections

• The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List — the curriculum this card came from.
• Aristotle — the author.
• Nicomachean Ethics — the existing concept page for this work in the wiki.
• Ethics — the field this work largely founded.
• Virtue — the book’s central category.