THE *NICOMACHEAN ETHICS* AS SYSTEMATIC ARTICULATION OF STERLING'S FRAMEWORK

 # Aristotle's *Nicomachean Ethics* Grounded in Sterling's Six Philosophical Commitments

## **THE *NICOMACHEAN ETHICS* AS SYSTEMATIC ARTICULATION OF STERLING'S FRAMEWORK**

Aristotle's *Nicomachean Ethics* provides the most rigorous analysis of how Sterling's six commitments operate in practice. Where Plato gives metaphysical foundations, Aristotle shows how these commitments function in actual character development and human flourishing.

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## **I. MORAL REALISM: THE *ERGON* (FUNCTION) ARGUMENT**

**Sterling's Commitment:** Virtue objectively good, vice objectively evil.

**Aristotle's Foundation:** The *ergon* argument (I.7, 1097b22-1098a20) demonstrates that **human good is objectively determined by human nature**.

**The Argument:**

1. Everything with a function has excellence in performing that function well

2. Human function (*ergon*) is rational activity (what distinguishes us from plants/animals)

3. Human excellence = excellent rational activity = virtue

4. Therefore, virtue is objectively good for human beings

**Key Passages:**

- **I.7 (1098a16-17):** "Happiness is activity of soul in accordance with perfect virtue"

- **I.13 (1102a5-6):** "Happiness is activity of soul exhibiting complete virtue"

**How This Grounds Sterling:** When Sterling says "virtue is the only genuine good," Aristotle provides the philosophical justification: virtue IS excellent functioning of what we essentially are (rational beings). This isn't preference—it's objective fact about human nature, like saying eyes are good for seeing.

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## **II. ETHICAL INTUITIONISM: PRACTICAL WISDOM (*PHRONESIS*)**

**Sterling's Commitment:** Moral truths directly apprehensible through reason.

**Aristotle's Foundation:** Book VI establishes that **practical wisdom (*phronesis*) grasps moral truth directly** through trained rational judgment.

**The Mechanism:**

- Practical wisdom is intellectual virtue that apprehends **what should be done** in particular circumstances

- Not through inference from universal rules, but through **direct rational perception** of the morally relevant features

- Like seeing that a triangle has three sides—immediate rational grasp

**Key Passages:**

- **VI.8 (1142a25-30):** Practical wisdom concerns "the ultimate particular, which is the object not of scientific knowledge but of perception—not sensory perception but a perception akin to that by which we perceive that the particular figure before us is a triangle"

- **VI.13 (1144b31-33):** "It is not possible to be good in the strict sense without practical wisdom, nor practically wise without moral virtue"

**How This Grounds Sterling:** When Sterling claims we can know through reason that externals are indifferent, he's describing what Aristotle calls practical wisdom—the trained rational capacity to directly apprehend moral truth. This knowledge develops through experience and reflection, not empirical observation.

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## **III. SUBSTANCE DUALISM: THE RATIONAL SOUL AS HUMAN ESSENCE**

**Sterling's Commitment:** You are your rational faculty, not your body or circumstances.

**Aristotle's Foundation:** While Aristotle's dualism is more nuanced than Plato's, the *Ethics* clearly establishes that **human essence lies in rational activity**, not bodily existence.

**The Analysis:**

- Soul has three aspects: vegetative (nutrition/growth), sensitive (perception/locomotion), rational (deliberation/choice)

- **Only the rational aspect matters for ethics** (I.13, 1102a13-1103a3)

- The *ergon* argument identifies us essentially with rational activity

- In *De Anima*, rational soul (*nous*) can exist independently of matter

**Key Passages:**

- **I.7 (1098a7-8):** The human good is "activity of the soul exhibiting excellence"

- **X.7 (1177b31-34):** "We must not follow those who advise us, being men, to think of human things... but must make ourselves immortal, and strain every nerve to live in accordance with the best thing in us"

**How This Grounds Sterling:** "Everything else, including my body, is external" reflects Aristotelian psychology. Your essential self is your capacity for rational activity (*energeia kata logon*). Bodily states, external circumstances—these affect conditions but don't constitute your essence.

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## **IV. LIBERTARIAN FREE WILL: *PROHAIRESIS* (RATIONAL CHOICE)**

**Sterling's Commitment:** Genuine agency in assent—you truly control your choices.

**Aristotle's Foundation:** Books III and VI provide the **most sophisticated analysis of free choice in ancient philosophy**, establishing that humans possess genuine agency over character development.

**The Three-Part Analysis:**

**1. Voluntary Action (*hekousion*):**

- **III.1 (1110a15-19):** Action is voluntary when "the principle that moves the parts of the body is in him, and the things of which the moving principle is in a person himself are up to him and voluntary"

**2. Choice (*prohairesis*):**

- **III.3 (1112a30-31):** "We deliberate about things that are up to us and can be done"

- Choice involves **reason and thought**—it's deliberate desire for things within our power

**3. Responsibility:**

- **III.5 (1113b6-8):** "Virtue is up to us, and so too vice. For where it is up to us to act, it is also up to us not to act"

- **III.5 (1113b13-21):** "No one is involuntarily happy or involuntarily miserable"

**How This Grounds Sterling:** Sterling's entire system depends on the claim that "you genuinely control whether to assent to impressions." Aristotle provides the philosophical framework: *prohairesis* is real rational choice, not determined response. Through repeated good choices, you actually transform your character—this requires libertarian freedom.

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## **V. FOUNDATIONALISM: SYSTEMATIC ETHICS FROM FIRST PRINCIPLES**

**Sterling's Commitment:** Systematic knowledge possible from self-evident starting points.

**Aristotle's Foundation:** The *Ethics* exemplifies foundationalist method, building comprehensive ethical conclusions from secure starting points about human nature.

**The Systematic Structure:**

**Foundation (Book I):**

- Every action aims at some good (1094a1-3)

- There must be a highest good (1094a18-22)

- Highest good is eudaimonia (1097b20-21)

**Systematic Development:**

- Books II-V derive particular virtues from foundational analysis

- Book VI establishes intellectual foundations for moral knowledge

- Books VII-IX apply principles to complex problems

- Book X completes the system with perfect happiness

**Key Passages:**

- **I.2 (1094a18-22):** "If there is some end of the things we do... clearly this must be the good and the chief good"

- **I.7 (1097b20-21):** "The good is something final and self-sufficient, and is the end of action"

**How This Grounds Sterling:** Sterling's confidence in "guaranteed results" reflects Aristotelian foundationalism. If the premises are true (humans are rational beings, virtue is excellent rational activity, we control our choices), then the conclusion follows necessarily: systematic virtue development must produce eudaimonia.

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## **VI. CORRESPONDENCE THEORY: RIGHT REASON (*ORTHOS LOGOS*)**

**Sterling's Commitment:** Judgments can match or fail to match objective reality.

**Aristotle's Foundation:** Throughout the *Ethics*, **right reason (*orthos logos*) is the standard**—judgments that correspond to objective truth about human flourishing.

**The Framework:**

**Truth in Practical Reasoning:**

- **VI.2 (1139b11-13):** "The work of both intellectual parts is truth. The states that are most strictly those in respect of which each will reach truth are the virtues of the two parts"

**The Mean as Objective Standard:**

- **II.6 (1106b36-1107a2):** "Virtue is a state concerned with choice, lying in a mean... determined by reason, and by that reason by which the person of practical wisdom would determine it"

- The mean isn't subjective preference—it corresponds to objective reality about what promotes human flourishing

**Error and Correction:**

- Vice represents **systematic error** about what promotes flourishing

- Moral education **corrects errors** through better correspondence to reality

- Practical wisdom develops through better alignment of judgment with truth

**How This Grounds Sterling:** When Sterling corrects "false value beliefs," he's using Aristotelian correspondence theory. Judgments that externals have genuine value are FALSE because they don't correspond to reality about human flourishing. Right reason grasps what genuinely benefits rational nature.

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## **THE INTEGRATED SYSTEM:**

### **How the Six Commitments Work Together in Aristotle:**

**FOUNDATIONALISM** → Systematic ethics from *ergon* argument

↓

**CORRESPONDENCE THEORY** → Right reason tracks reality about flourishing

↓

**MORAL REALISM** → Virtue objectively excellent for rational beings

↓

**ETHICAL INTUITIONISM** → *Phronesis* grasps moral truth directly

↓

**SUBSTANCE DUALISM** → Human essence = rational activity

↓

**LIBERTARIAN FREE WILL** → *Prohairesis* enables character development

### **The Aristotelian Guarantee for Sterling's System:**

If the *Nicomachean Ethics* is correct, then Sterling's promise follows logically:

1. **Virtue is objectively good** (function argument—it's excellent rational activity)

2. **We can know this through practical wisdom** (*phronesis* grasps moral truth)

3. **Our knowledge corresponds to reality** (right reason about human nature)

4. **We are essentially rational** (*ergon* = rational activity)

5. **We genuinely control character development** (*prohairesis* = real choice)

6. **Systematic method yields reliable results** (foundationalist derivation)

Therefore: Rational agents who understand human nature and systematically develop virtue through repeated good choices must achieve eudaimonia, because virtue constitutes the excellent functioning of rational nature.

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## **STERLING'S STOICISM AS APPLIED ARISTOTELIANISM:**

**The Synthesis:**

- **Aristotle provides:** Analysis of how character actually develops in rational agents

- **Epictetus provides:** Specific techniques for systematic virtue training

- **Sterling integrates:** Aristotelian psychology + Stoic practice = reliable character transformation

**Why Aristotle Is Essential:**

Plato gives metaphysical foundations (Forms, soul, eternal truth), but Aristotle shows **how virtue development actually works** in embodied rational agents:

- How habits form through repeated choices

- How practical wisdom develops through experience

- How character becomes stable through consistency

- How externals relate to virtue without being necessary for happiness

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## **CRITICAL ARISTOTELIAN INSIGHTS FOR STERLING:**

### **1. Character Formation Through Choice**

**II.1 (1103a14-17):** "The excellence of the intellect is produced and increased by teaching... while moral virtue comes about as a result of habit"

**Sterling Application:** Systematic training works because repeated rational choices actually transform character—not through external conditioning but through genuine rational agency.

### **2. The Unity of the Virtues**

**VI.13 (1144b31-33):** "It is not possible to be good in the strict sense without practical wisdom, nor practically wise without moral virtue"

**Sterling Application:** The virtues form an integrated system. You can't develop one without developing others—supporting Sterling's claim about systematic transformation rather than piecemeal improvement.

### **3. Voluntary vs. Involuntary**

**III.5 (1113b6-8):** "Virtue is up to us, and so too vice"

**Sterling Application:** If virtue weren't up to us, Sterling's training would be impossible. Aristotle proves that character development is within genuine human control.

### **4. The Mean Relative to Us**

**II.6 (1106b36-1107a2):** The mean is "relative to us" but "determined by reason"

**Sterling Application:** While circumstances vary, right reason can determine objectively what constitutes virtuous response in any situation—supporting Sterling's universal claims with contextual flexibility.

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## **WHY THE *NICOMACHEAN ETHICS* IS FOUNDATIONAL FOR STERLING:**

The *Ethics* provides what Plato's *Republic* doesn't: **detailed analysis of how philosophical commitments translate into actual character transformation**. Aristotle shows:

- **How** rational choice works (*prohairesis* analysis)

- **How** moral knowledge develops (*phronesis* cultivation)

- **How** virtue becomes stable (habituation through choice)

- **How** the system applies universally yet contextually (mean relative to us but determined by reason)

Without Aristotle, Sterling would have metaphysical foundations but no psychological mechanism. Aristotle demonstrates that **systematic virtue development really works** because it aligns with how rational souls actually function and develop.

The *Nicomachean Ethics* proves Sterling's techniques aren't wishful thinking—they're applications of philosophical truths about rational nature that Aristotle rigorously analyzed 2,400 years ago.