Aristotle believed that all ethical virtues come from striking a balance between "excess" and "poverty."

However, this does not mean that Aristotle believed in moral relativism. He classifies several emotions (e.g., hatred, envy, jealousy, etc.) and several behaviors (e.g., adultery, stealing, murder, etc.) as the wrong side, regardless of the circumstances under which they arise.

In Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle usually focuses on finding a balance between the two extremes in various fields, such as justice, courage, wealth, and so on. Courage, for example, is the point of balance between two feelings (fear and self-confidence) and the actions taken on the basis of this balance point (acts of courage).

Too much fear, too little confidence, can lead to cowardice, and too little fear, too much confidence can lead to hasty, stupid choices. Aristotle said that finding the equilibrium of things is the key to finding happiness, and happiness itself is the ultimate form of perfection. The balance between the two is often referred to as the golden mean.

Aristotle also wrote about his conception of justice. He defined justice as two parts: justice in general and justice in particular.

General justice is the form of justice proposed by Aristotle, which can only exist in a perfect society.

Special justice is the punishment of a particular crime or injustice.

It is also here that Aristotle argues that people need to be trained in judgment to judge the justice of a particular event. Aristotle said that developing good habits can produce good human beings, and practicing the golden mean can make a person live a healthier and happier life.

Aristotle's ethics is rooted in early Greek ethics. Especially from his teacher Plato and Plato's teacher Socrates.

Socrates himself did not leave any writings, Plato left works mainly for the masses, and Aristotle left more scholarly works.

Unlike Plato, Aristotle was more reserved about his theory as a whole, and less ethically insistent on the correctness of his theory. However, the overall ideas of these philosophers are quite close.

Socrates was the first Greek philosopher to devote himself to the study of ethics, perhaps in response to the emergence of sophistry at a time when rhetoric, moral relativism, and sophistry against the Athenian traditions of the gods were in vogue (and they used sophistry against many other traditions).

Sophists can ask a large number of questions about the current society, but they do not provide answers.

Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle all had well-defined systems of ethics in which one could choose to pursue virtue in order to be happy and prosperous.

They all believe that virtuous actions can be taught and practiced. They also believe that ethics is based on reason. And there are rational reasons for pursuing virtue.

This is in stark contrast to the moral relativism emphasized by sophists, who believe that many different behaviors have different standards in different societies. In fact, the same argument is still the subject of controversy in modern ethics circles.

Apart from these basic similarities, there are not many ethical differences between Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.

The main difference is that Socrates and Plato thought that the act of knowing virtue was sufficient for the average person to live a virtuous life. There is no one who knows virtue or does evil things.

Aristotle, on the other hand, argued (and most philosophers later agreed) that many people understand that what they do is bad. But because of the weakness of the will, he still does it.

Plato listed only a few standard virtues: wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice. Aristotle lists much more than that.

In addition to his writings on the ethics of the individual, Aristotle was also devoted to the polis in a work entitled Politics.

Aristotle's concept of the polis was very organized, and he is considered to be the first person to conceive the polis in this way. Aristotle believed that the polis should be a natural community.

Furthermore. He believed that the polis should precede the family, and that the family should precede the individual, that is, the last in the order of generation and the first in the order of existence. He is also famous for his statement that "man is essentially a political animal".

Aristotle conceived politics as being more like a creature than a machine, a collection of parts that cannot exist without the others.

Some have criticized Aristotle's political theories because certain thinkers such as Juan Gines de Sepulveda used his idea of natural slaves to justify European rule over the Indians.

It should be noted that the political community as it is understood in modern times is the state. However, the state did not suit Aristotle, and the political community he referred to was the polis. Aristotle understood the polis as a political "partnership", not under a social contract, nor as a political community as understood by Niccolò and Machiavelli.

Subsequently, the polis was established not to avoid injustice or economic stability, but to live a good life: "Political partnership must be respected, it exists for noble deeds, not for living together".

This can be distinguished from the social contract theory, which states that individuals abandon their state of nature out of "fear of violent death" or "aversion to trouble."

This also made Aristotle the first person to distinguish between ethics and political science, and was the founder of ancient political science.

Aristotle's writings are one of the most complete and influential philosophical systems, perhaps more than any other thinker in history.

He founded logic, biology, and psychology on their own, and he predicted the Industrial Revolution in his book Politics 2,000 years ago: "If every machine could make its own parts, obey the commands and plans of man, if the shuttle would fly to and fro by itself, if the strings could play the harp by itself, without human control, the foreman would no longer have to lead the workers, and the slave owners would no longer have to direct the slaves." 」

Scholastic thinkers such as Thomas and Aquinas referred to Aristotle as "philosophers" who mixed Aristotle's philosophy with Christian thought and brought ancient Greek philosophy into the Middle Ages.

However, in the process of mixing, they also had to abandon some of Aristotle's principles of science and art, lest Christian ideas conflict with the laws of modern science and observation.

The medieval English poet Chaucer wrote of his students: On his bed there were twenty books with black or red covers, containing Aristotle and his philosophy.

The Italian poet Dante placed Aristotle in the first hell: I saw people who were skilled in all kinds of crafts, and in the circle of philosophers, with my admiration and reverence, I saw Plato and Socrates, who stood closest to Plato.

The later German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche said that his philosophical ideas were derived almost entirely from Aristotle. Aristotle's ethical and moral principles have also been absorbed and carried forward by some modern philosophers such as Ain and Rand.

Although Aristotle wrote many classic essays and dialogues (Cicero once praised Aristotle's work as "a series of gold"), most of his works are lost today, and the authenticity of the few that have survived is often questioned. Aristotle's works have been lost and rediscovered several times throughout history.

After the end of the Roman period, Aristotle's works suffered a second mass loss in the Western world. This time, however, many Eastern Muslim scholars and philosophers have preserved his work, many of whom have studied and commented extensively on his work.

Aristotle's works became an important basis for the Farsaphat movement in Islamic philosophy, and also influenced the ideas of Avicenna, Avihou, and others.

When the influence of the Farsapha movement spread to the Western world, the translator of Cremona, Gerald, began translating Aristotle's works.

William, from Mulbeck, also translated some of his works into Latin. When Thomas and Aquinas wrote their theological ideas, he began to read Mulbeck's translations, and then interest and research in Aristotle's ideas began to revive in the Western world, and the Aristotelian school was reappeared in Europe. (To be continued......)