Aristotle's Ethical Treatises
Chris Bobonich
In Kraut, ed., The Blackwell Guide to Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics
Blackwell, 2006

"Aristotle devoted great energy in Eudemian Ethics Book V = Nicomachean Ethics Book VI to distinguishing phronesis, characterized as the virtue that brings it about that one deliberates well concerning what is good (NE VI.5 1140a24-28, 1140b20-30) from theoretical understanding, that is, from knowledge or understanding (episteme) and wisdom (sophia).... It is one of the most striking features of the Protrepticus that such separation and independence of theoretical understanding and the virtue that is responsible for good deliberation seems to be lacking. Consider the following passage... 'The philosopher alone imitates exact things themselves [auton ton akribon], for he is a spectator of them, not of imitations ... But it is clear that to the philosopher alone among craftsmen belong laws that are stable and actions that are right and fine [orthai kai kalai]. For he alone lives by looking at nature and the divine. Like a good helmsman, he moors the principles of his life to that which is eternal and unchanging, makes fast there, and lives as his own master.' (84.9-85.23, B46-50)" (BOBONICH, p. 19)

"[A] second passage shows that the value and importance accorded to philosophy in the Protrepticus is strikingly high and, correspondingly, the evaluation of non-philosophical lives and activities is very low: ... 'Nothing divine or blessed belongs to humans, except that one thing alone which is worth taking seriously - as much as there is in us of intellect [nous] and phronesis: this alone of our possessions seems to be immortal, this alone divine ... For intellect is the god in us - whether it was Hemotimus or Anaxagoras who said so - and mortal life contains a portion of some god. We must, therefore, either philosophize or say farewell to life and depart hence, since all other things seem to be great nonsense and frivolousness.' (77.13-79.2, B104-110)." (BOBONICH, p. 20)

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