Aristotles Nicomachean Ethics Books One and Two Essay Outline

write an outline for this essay

The prompt:

We started this class by looking at the example of Rosa Parks. In that first lecture, I asked a number of questions about her particular case that I hoped to provide answers to as we went through Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Now that we are working on Aristotle, I would like you to apply the materials from Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics Books One and Two to a real-world example.

To do this, you will need to focus on an example of a virtuous person who made sacrifices and perhaps even suffered for their virtue. Rosa Parks is a good example. You aren’t writing a biography, and so you only need to include particular facts when they are relevant to the philosophical points you are trying to make.

Using your example, explain how we the person in question can be seen as an example of Aristotle’s claims about the relation between virtue, “function,” and happiness. What would Aristotle say is most important when assessing their virtue and why? Moreover, how would Aristotle defend the claim that your chosen example attained the best chance of personal happiness even though they may have suffered imprisonment, loss of life, or great personal sacrifice?