Nicomachean Ethics

From a preeminent scholar and translator, the definitive translation of Aristotle’s essential work.

“Waterfield has produced a reliable, fresh, and wonderfully readable translation of the Ethics that makes Aristotle’s often elliptical style accessible to those approaching him for the first time.”―Brad Inwood, Yale University

The Nicomachean Ethics is widely considered Aristotle’s most significant work of ethical philosophy, and has had an unquestionably profound impact on all subsequent Western philosophy, law, and theology—from the works of Dante Alighieri to modern “virtue ethics.” 

In this new translation, preeminent scholar Robin Waterfield masterfully renders Aristotle’s indispensable work into readable English. Nicomachean Ethics argues that human happiness can be achieved through virtuous action, as typified by a “golden mean” of behavior between extremes. As well as analyzing the virtues, the work masterfully covers topics such as pleasure and self-control, friendship, and everything that makes up the good life and allows us to fulfill our godlike rational capacity. The Nicomachean Ethics is as instructive today for how a good life should be lived as it was over two thousand years ago. 

With John Sellars’s illuminating and eminently practical introduction, this beautifully rendered new translation is required reading for anyone seeking insights into Aristotelian philosophy.