~ 330 BC ~
The Nicomachean Ethics is Aristotle's best-known work on ethics, focusing on the science of the good for human life and closely related to his Eudemian Ethics. The ultimate aim of human practical activity, according to Aristotle, is eudaimonia, often translated as "flourishing". Ethics, according to Aristotle, is practical rather than theoretical, and is about how individuals should best live. The work consists of ten books and was of great significance in the development of all modern philosophy, European law, and theology. The book's significance has been renewed by the virtue ethics revival, with recent philosophers including Alasdair MacIntyre, G. E. M. Anscombe, Mortimer Adler, Hans-Georg Gadamer, and Martha Nussbaum.