Nicomachean Ethics Selected Pages from Book 3 on Action Theory

May 5, 2025 | 1,545 words | 8min read

Paper Title: Nicomachean Ethics Selected Pages from Book 3 on Action Theory
Link to Paper: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicomachean_Ethics
Date: 320 BCE
Paper Type: Philosophy, Action Theory
Short Abstract:
Book III of the Nicomachean Ethics is one of the foundational texts of action theory, a branch of philosophy concerned with the processes that cause voluntary or intentional actions.

1. The Good and the Highest Good

Every form of production (techne), scientific inquiry, and action aims at some good. Thus, the good can be defined as “that which everything strives for.”

Because there are different kinds of actions and methods of production, there are also many different goals. For example, medicine aims at health, and shipbuilding aims at the construction of ships.

2. What Is Voluntary?

When we investigate virtue, we must also examine what is voluntary and what is not. This is also important for lawmakers, as it helps determine appropriate punishments for broken laws.

We say something is involuntary if it occurs due to force or ignorance. An act is considered forced if its cause lies outside the person—for example, if someone acts under threat of violence.

Actions are not always purely voluntary or involuntary. Sometimes they are mixed, occurring in complex situations where the action aligns with difficult or conflicting circumstances.

A person may be praised if they perform a difficult or unpleasant action for the sake of something noble. On the other hand, a person may be blamed if they choose comfort or pleasure at the expense of virtue.

In certain cases, blame is replaced with forgiveness—particularly when the circumstances exceed what human nature can reasonably endure.

Sometimes, it’s hard to judge whether it is right to endure the harm caused by an action for the sake of the virtue gained through it. Often, it is difficult to remain firm in our moral judgment because what is expected can be unpleasant. Whether a person is praised or blamed depends on whether they succumb to coercion or resist it.

An action is considered voluntary when it is done for its own sake and its cause lies within the person acting.

An action is forced when its cause lies entirely outside the person, and the person does not meaningfully contribute to the action.

3. The Role of Knowledge

Actions that occur due to ignorance are considered involuntary. If someone acts out of ignorance and feels no regret, the action is clearly involuntary, because they did not understand what they were doing.

It is also important to distinguish between:

• Acting in ignorance (e.g., being unaware of specific details), and
• Acting because of ignorance (e.g., due to being drunk or angry).

What makes an action involuntary is the person’s ignorance—specifically, ignorance of the circumstances and elements involved in the action.

The conditions of an action include:

• The person acting
• The object or recipient of the action
• The situation or context
• The tools or means used
• The intention or purpose behind it
• The manner in which it is done

We are not always ignorant of all these factors. For instance, we always know who is acting—ourselves. But someone may not know what they are doing. For example, a person might administer the wrong medicine.

If someone is ignorant of one or more of these conditions—especially the more significant ones, like intention—the action is considered involuntary.

4. Definition of What Is Voluntary

An action is voluntary when its cause lies within the person acting, and they are aware of the relevant conditions under which the action occurs.

Just because an action is done out of desire or pleasure does not make it involuntary. Otherwise, all actions performed by animals or children would be considered involuntary. Moreover, it would be strange to consider things we actively pursue as unwanted.

What distinguishes a mistake made through reasoning from one made through desire? Both should be avoided, and both are part of human nature—so it would be inconsistent to claim that only actions driven by desire are involuntary.

5. Distinguishing Intention from Related Phenomena

We now need to consider intention, which is especially relevant to virtue. Intention is a subset of voluntary action but is not identical to it—because while both children and animals can act voluntarily, they do not act with intention.

Intention is not the same as:

• Desire – which animals also have. Desire aims at what is pleasurable, whereas intention can aim at things that are neither pleasurable nor painful.
• Lust – since actions driven by lust are least likely to be called intentional.
• Wish – because wishes often aim at the impossible or at things outside of our control, while intention only applies to what is achievable and within our control.
• Opinion – opinions are judged as true or false, while intentions are not. Moreover, opinions describe what something is, while intention aims at what one wants to do.

6. Definition of Intention

We do not engage in deliberation about everything—only about matters we encounter and use regularly. The less relevant something is to our lives, the less we deliberate on it. For example, people living in the desert do not think about fishing.

Once we have set a goal, we no longer deliberate about the goal itself, but about how to achieve it. For instance, a doctor does not deliberate whether to heal, but how to heal; a fisherman does not decide whether to fish, but how to fish.

If there are several ways to achieve a goal, we consider which is best and most efficient. If there is only one way, we ask how to achieve it or consider the causes that make it possible. If these causes are impossible (e.g., needing money we cannot acquire), we abandon the goal. When something happens through the help of others, and we are the cause of their involvement, it still counts as our action.

Sometimes we focus on the tools and how to use them. Intention and reasoning follow a similar process, but intention is the outcome of deliberation. Thus, intention is the conclusion of reasoning about how to act.

7. The Wish

Wishing is directed at ends. Some argue we wish for what is actually good, while others say we wish for what seems good.

The problem with the first view is that people sometimes wish for things that appear good but are actually harmful.

The problem with the second view is that what appears good differs among individuals, often contradicting one another.

So the difference between a good and a bad person lies in the quality of their wishes: the good person wishes for things that are truly good; the bad person wishes arbitrarily, often due to misleading pleasures or comforts.

8. We Are Responsible for Our Virtues and Vices

If we have the power to act, we also have the power not to act. Therefore, virtue lies within our control.

If it is up to us to do or not do good and bad actions, then it is up to us whether we become good or bad people.

If the person is the cause of their own actions, then bad actions are voluntary. This is supported by both private individuals and lawmakers, who punish people when their actions were not caused by force or ignorance.

Lawmakers also assign harsher penalties for willed ignorance, such as punishing drunkenness more severely—because becoming drunk is itself a voluntary act.

We are also responsible for being just or unjust, because the actions that shape our character are within our control. For example, someone who trains regularly becomes an athlete; similarly, repeated just actions form a just character.

It is mistaken to believe that someone who knowingly does wrong didn’t mean it, simply because they now regret it. Wishing to be good doesn’t make one good—just as wishing to be healthy doesn’t make one healthy.

Before throwing a stone, a person could have chosen not to throw it. In the same way, before becoming unjust, one could have chosen not to act unjustly.

If someone is born unattractive, we don’t blame them. But if they are unattractive due to neglect, we do. Similarly, we don’t blame someone born blind, but we do blame someone who loses an eye through carelessness or vice.

If someone argues they aren’t responsible for their goals because they can’t control what appears good to them, we can respond that people are responsible for shaping their dispositions, and these shape their goals. Otherwise, no one would be accountable for bad actions, because striving toward goals would not be self-chosen—it would be innate, like being born blind. But humans are not born morally blind—they are capable of discernment.

Thus, just as virtue is voluntary and stems from disposition, vice is also voluntary and shaped by our choices.

9. Summary

We distinguish between actions that are forced and those that are voluntary. Good actions stem from right reason and correct disposition. Voluntary actions are those under our control from beginning to end, provided we are not ignorant.

Our dispositions are under our control at the beginning. However, once someone has already developed a bad disposition, it is much harder to change. Hence, early choices matter most.

reply via email