Read Books III and IV
Content Summary for Teachers
Book Three
Aristotle begins by breaking down the first way to assess someone’s virtue: their intention. Virtuous actions can be divided into three categories: voluntary, involuntary, and non-voluntary. Non-voluntary actions occur when the person is forced to do something against their will. However, Aristotle does acknowledge that non-voluntary actions can happen inadvertently if the person who performs the action later realizes that they were ignorant.
For this reason, Aristotle emphasizes choice over action, because choices involve intention on the part of the actor. We deliberate over our choices to discover the means by which we...
