Nicomachean Ethics

⚖The case for it

The most practical philosophy book ever written. Aristotle's answer to 'How should I live?' is a theory of character, not a list of rules. Virtue is a habit, happiness is an activity, and the good life requires practice over mere knowledge. The doctrine of the mean remains the best advice on human excellence anyone has offered: courage is fear rightly calibrated, not fearlessness.

— the canon

✕The case against

These are lecture notes, never polished for readers: compressed, repetitive, and dry as chalk. The mean threatens circularity (virtue is what the practically wise man would do; the wise man is the one with virtue), and the magnanimous man, slow-walking and deep-voiced, is hard to admire now. Aristotle's good life quietly assumes leisure, property, and Greek luck.

— the honest librarian