in accordance with virtue in a complete life" (1098a). I think he would say that the intellectual
virtues are ends, but the practical virtues are only means. Christian moralists hold that, while the
consequences of virtuous actions are in general good, they are not as good as the virtuos actions
themselves, which are to be valued on their own accountm, and not on account of their effects. On
the other hand, those who consider pleasure the good regard virtues solely means. Any other
definition of the good, except the definition as virtue, will have the same consequence. On this
question, Aristole as already said, agrees mainly, though not wholly, and those who thinkthe first
business of ethics is to define the good, and that virtue is to be defined as a section tending to
producethe good.
The relation of ethics to politics raises another critical question of considerable inportance.
Granted that the good at which right action should aim is the good of the whole community, or
ultimately, of the whole human race, is this social good a sum of goods enjoyed by individuals, or
is it something belonging essentially to the whole, not to the parts? We may illustrate the problem
by the analogy of the human body. Pleasures are largely associated with different parts of the
body, but we consider them as belonging to a person as a whole; we may enjoy a pleasant smell,
but we know that the nose alone could not enjoy it. Some contend that, in a closely organized
community, there are, analogously, excellences belonging to the whole, but not to any part. If they
are metaphysicians, they may hold, like Hegel, that whatever quality is good is an attribute of the
universe as a whole; but they will generally add that it is less mistaken to attribute good to a State
than to an individual. Logically, the view may not be put as follows. Wh can attribute to a state
various predicates that cannot be attributed to its separate members - that it is populousm,
extensive, powerful, etc. The view we are considering puts ethical predicates in this class, and
says that they only derivatively belong to individuals. A man who may belong tp a populous State,
or to a good State; but he, they say, is no more good than he is populous. This view, which has
been widely held by German philosophers, is not Aristotles's, except possibly, in some degree, in
his conception of justice.
A considerable part of the Ethics is occupied with the discussion of friendship, including all
relations that involve affection. Perfect