Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, named for his son Nicomachus, is the foundational text of virtue ethics and one of the most influential works in the history of philosophy. Aristotle asks what constitutes the good life for human beings and answers that it consists in eudaimonia, often translated as happiness or flourishing. This flourishing is achieved through the practice of virtues, which Aristotle understands as stable dispositions to act in ways that hit the mean between extremes. Courage, for instance, is the mean between cowardice and recklessness; generosity the mean between stinginess and profligacy. Aristotle emphasizes that virtue is not merely knowing what is right but habitually doing it; we become just by performing just acts. The Ethics also examines friendship, pleasure, and the contemplative life, which Aristotle considers the highest form of happiness. His analysis is grounded in observation of actual human behavior rather than abstract principle. The work's influence extends through Thomas Aquinas to contemporary virtue ethics. This edition, translated by Robert C. Bartlett and Susan D. Collins, renders Aristotle's Greek into clear modern English while preserving the precision of the original. Essential reading for anyone interested in ethics, political philosophy, or the foundations of Western thought.