Analysis of the Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle, Books 9-10

Chapter 9 seems to steer away from friendships in the conventional sense to talk more about agreements, acquaintances and mutual exchanges. He explains how "friendships" in this sense need to have a just and agreeable exchange, a friendship should never be only for one person's benefit, otherwise it isn't a true friendship and virtue will not be the product of it.

He also explains that the good feelings which stem from a healthy friendship are similar to the feelings one has for oneself. In a healthy friendship, we want the other person to feed good and be happy, much like the other person wants us to feel and how we want to feel. If that isn't true, then the friendship won't promote virtue and should either be abandoned or there should be an attempt to salvage it. He continues to reinforce the idea that friendship is a good thing to have in life, meaning it can only help increase one's happiness when done correctly. Everyone should try to find true friendship, unless as Aristotle says they are completely self-sustaining and do not need the aid which friendship brings. He also imposes a limit on friendship, saying that it is much better to have a few close friends rather than many acquaintances. It's hard to have beneficial friendships when you have to maintain so many of them with many different people.

Aristotle concludes the Nicomachean Ethics with a reading on pleasure. While some philosophers such as Plato argue that pleasure is the highest, supreme good since all actions aim toward achieving it, Aristotle argues that other qualities combined with pleasure create a supreme good. Pleasure is only a small part of it. It is a result we want from all of our actions, but it must be balances with other qualities to create the supreme good, otherwise pleasure is only a simple good.

Pleasure needs to be balanced with the virtues of morals and intellect to result in a supreme good. Aristotle uses the example of a blissful child. One shouldn't want to maintain the intellect of a child if it means that life will become pleasurable. We should want to balance all factors of life together and try to maximize the amount of pleasure we can create from that balance.

He ends reinforcing the idea that people need to practice the qualities need to be considered a virtuous person rather than simply read about them, a statement I can support. There's no use in simply reading dozens of books about something if you don't go out and practice whatever it is. It's impossible to learn how to play a sport simply from reading books or watching games, you need to get a ball and go and try it out for yourself.

He also explains that the government is responsible for setting up laws which help people become more virtuous, since people don't tend to be virtuous on their own. In a perfect society or a perfect world they may, but for that to happen the state needs to establish laws. He also stresses the importance of parenting when trying to creating a virtuous person. While laws can set guidelines for how people should live, parents can make sure children are following them more directly than the government would be able to.

Overall I enjoyed Aristotle's views on ethics and virtues. Again I have to say that I believe in his central idea of going out and trying to create as much good as possible. In doing this you are bound to become a virtuous person, or at least start on a path toward virtue.

Source: Nicomachean Ethics, translation by Joe Sachs. By Aristotle.