Nicomachean Ethics, of Aristotle Introduction and Comments

Abstract

Aristotle was the one who created the first version of the safest form of knowledge: science; and he established the knowledge that supports it: deductive logic. This instrument, to advance in the most symbolic domain of the laws of reality, has, as one of its nuclear properties, the maximum objectivity and self-control possible. But knowledge has always been a power. Thus, human societies who appropriated this well organized and pragmatic understanding of the nature and human affairs were the ones who subjected to those still living in a pre-scientific worldview. By this mean, such groups achieved hegemony over the last ones. The first example of this kind was the ephemeral empire conquered by the pupil of Aristotle, Alexander the Great. Advantageously, the same Greek philosopher created ethics, a metalanguage used to judge the human value of science applications, especially in the ways of understanding and using politics as an instrument of domination. From the top level of this philosophical perspective, human beings are able to judge their actions from the perspective of their good and evil character, both at the individual level (the theory of virtue) and in the field of various social groups such as family, institution, country, powers. Regarding the actions of these and their mutual relations, ethics examines in what extent are they fair or not.