Ethical Philosophy

so in total there are 4 articles to answer:) How does Aristotle in chapters 1 and 2 argue in favour of the proposition that there is in fact some highest (chief) good? What usual (popular) opinions concerning the nature of the highest good for the human life does Aristotle distinguish? In what ways does he criticize them? (Outline his main arguments against each of the opinions.) What criteria does Aristotle establish for the highest goal (or ultimate good) of human life? How does Aristotle in ch. 7 identify the general field of his inquiry for the following books of NE? Try to summarize the way he accomplishes this in the argument on pages 11-12 beginning with “But perhaps saying that happiness (…)” and ending with “(…) short time make someone blessed and happy.” Read paragraphs 5-9 (pp. 23-30) and answer the following questions: 1) Why does Aristotle say that virtue/excellence “is a state concerned with choice, lying in a mean relative to us”? Explain why arete must be a “state”(hexis), why it is in a “mean” and why it must be “relative to us”. 2) How does Aristotle classify virtues in par. 7? (What principal “domains” of their application in human life does he distinguish here?) 3) Why the Aristotelian theory of virtue/excellence can not be understood as recommending to maintain a moderate amount of passion in every situation? 4) How does Aristotle argue against the view that every excellence/virtue has only one opposite vice? Read Letter to Menoeceus by Epicurus and Seneca’s Letter 70 (pp. 57-73).  Answer the following questions concerning the first letter: What types of desires does Epicurus distinguish and what is the main ethical purpose of this distinction? What represents the principal measure of all good and evil for Epicurus and why?  Why is prudence (phronesis) a virtue/excellence from which “spring all the other virtues”? Why does an Epicurean sage feel no fear of death?  And as for the second letter: What are the criteria that a Stoic sage will consider when deciding whether to put an end to his life? What does Seneca illustrate with the example of a “well-known Rhodian”? Formulate Seneca’s main argument against philosophers that prohibit suicide. Why can we say that one of the main moral lessons of the epistle is that death is not to be feared? With what arguments does Seneca support this exhortation? 4 essays with 2 pages each