The Power of Choice in "Nicomachean Ethics"

While reading Aristotle’s “Nicomachean Ethics,” I found the paragraphs on page 129 that refer to the power of choice to be important in illuminating the differentiae between humans, such as myself, and lower-life forms, such as pigs. Aristotle states on ii.4-5 “The irrational animals do not exercise choice, but they do feel desire, and also passion. Also a man of defective self-restraint acts from desire but not from choice: and on the contrary a self-restrained man acts from choice and not from desire. Again, desire can run counter to choice, but not desire to desire.” I found this to be particularly valuable pieces of knowledge, especially for situations that deal with the morality of someone’s character. The fact that human beings have the ability to make choices based on our volition is a powerful tool that we share for seeking out and creating ‘good’ in the world.  While Aristotle notes that there are men who are defective in their ability to let desire conquer their ability to make ‘good choices’, he also points out that that the effectiveness of one’s ability to maintain their ability to make choices is based on the amount of restraint one has over his character. In line five he seems to be saying that while our choices can give us the freedom to escape the imprisonment of our desires, our desires alone will never be shifted from their own nature. Therefore, man’s superiority over animal comes from his ability to restrain his actions from being enslaved by desires via his power of choice.

We can see how this power of ‘choice’, when combined with our ‘wish’, is beneficial to our own ‘good’ in part ii.9. Aristotle states “We wish rather for ends than for means, but choose the means to our end; for example, we wish to be healthy, but choose things to make us healthy; we wish to be happy, and that is the word we use in this connexion, but it would not be proper to say that we choose to be happy; since, speaking generally, choice seems to be concerned with things within our own control.” Aristotle seems to be saying that as humans, we use our ability to wish, to establish an end that we hope to achieve. If our wish is for good, as it should be, than this end will be one of happiness and/or healthiness. Achieving this end; however, requires a means. This is where the power of choice is vital to helping us achieve our ‘wish.’ Since we cannot simply choose an end result of happiness or good health, we must make the choices that will provides a means for these ends.

Aristotle’s ideas show how as superior beings, we have the ability to choose the means that will lead us to happiness and good health. Aristotle shows that by having good moral character by practicing self-restraint, we have the ability to create ‘good’ ends.