Virtue and Femininity in the Nicomachean Ethics

Abstract

This article analyzes women’s virtue from Aristotle’s ethical perspective, which places women at a lower level than man. This classification appears when the Stagirite philosopher explains the formation of the virtuous man in the Nicomachean Ethics. In these chapters, he recognizes that man attains virtue through the practice of the intellective, elective and deliberative faculties, while women’s virtue is subject to the approval of the husband or father, representatives of familial and social authority. The analysis of this research concentrates on reviewing the essential aspects considered by Aristotle to classify an individual as virtuous, as stated in some books of the Nicomachean Ethics. Secondly, the article attempts to develop the determination of women in Aristotelian thought with the reinforcement of secondary bibliography. Finally, the research aims to analyze the Aristotelian virtue of women from the Nicomachean Ethics, which has been justified and imposed in a hierarchical social system.