Eudemian Ethics
Aristotle (384–322 BC)
Aristotle's Eudemian Ethics in the Greek text edited by Franz Susemihl, with H. Rackham's English translation.
Book 1
Section 1.1
Section 1.2
Section 1.3
Section 1.4
Section 1.5
Section 1.6
Section 1.7
Section 1.8
Book 2
Section 2.1
Section 2.2
Section 2.3
Section 2.4
Section 2.5
Section 2.6
Section 2.7
Section 2.8
Section 2.9
Section 2.10
Section 2.11
Book 3
Section 3.1
Section 3.2
Section 3.3
Section 3.4
Section 3.5
Section 3.6
Section 3.7
Book 7
Section 7.1
Section 7.2
Section 7.3
Section 7.4
Section 7.5
Section 7.6
Section 7.7
Section 7.8
Section 7.9
It is thought that what is just is something that is equal, and also that friendship is based on equality, if there is truth in the saying Amity is equality. And all constitutions are some species of justice; for they are partnerships, and every partnership is founded on justice, so that there are as many species of justice and of partnership as there are of friendship, and all these species border on each other and have their differentia closely related.
But since the relations of soul and body, craftsman and tool, and master and slave are similar, between the two terms of each of these pairs there is no partnership;for they are not two, but the former is one and the latter a part of that one, not one itself; nor is the good divisible between them, but that of both belongs to the one for whose sake they exist. For the body is the soul’s tool born with it, a slave is as it were a member or tool of his master, a tool is a sort of inanimate slave.
The other partnerships are a constituent part of the partnerships of the state—for example that of the members of a brotherhood or a priesthood, or with business partnerships. All forms of constitution exist together in the household, both the correct forms and the deviations (for the same thing is found in constitutions as in the case of musical modes)—
paternal authority being royal, the relationship of man and wife aristocratic, that of brothers a republic, while the deviation-forms of these are tyranny, oligarchy and democracy; and there are therefore as many varieties of justice.
And since there are two sorts of equality, numerical and proportional, there will also be various species of justice and of partnership and friendship. The partnership of democracy is based on numerical equality, and so is the friendship of comrades, as it is measured by the same standard; whereas the aristocratic partnership (which is the best) and the royal are proportional, for it is just for superior and inferior to have not the same share but proportional shares;
and similarly also the friendship of father and son, and the same way in partnerships.