Key Facts
full title · Nicomachean Ethics
author · Aristotle
type of work · Philosophical treatise
language · Ancient (Classical or Attic) Greek
time and place written · Between 334 and 323 b.c. in
Athens; composed as lecture notes for Aristotle’s courses at the
Lyceum
date of first publication · Compiled by editors an indeterminate, short time after Aristotle’s
death
narrator · The Ethics are notes from Aristotle’s
lectures, so the speaker is undoubtedly Aristotle himself
major topics · Virtue and happiness; moral education; the doctrine
of the mean; the unity of the virtues; the importance of friendship;
the life of contemplation
