Portraits · Philosophers & essayists · I of XII

Aristotle

384–322 BC · Philosopher

…men come to be builders, for instance, by building; harp-players, by playing on the harp.
ἃ γὰρ δεῖ μαθόντας ποιεῖν, ταῦτα ποιοῦντες μανθάνομεν, οἷον οἰκοδομοῦντες οἰκοδόμοι γίνονται καὶ κιθαρίζοντες κιθαρισταί
Aristotle · Nicomachean Ethics, 4th century BC

Read it in the source →

Aristotle taught this in the Nicomachean Ethics, his lectures on how to live well, in the fourth century BC. A skill is learned by doing it: builders by building, players by playing. Virtue, he argued, is learned the same way: we become just by doing just acts.

Nicomachean Ethics, Book II, chapter 1 (Bekker 1103a32–34). The Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle, tr. D. P. Chase (1847, revised 1861), Everyman's Library (London: Dent, 1911), Project Gutenberg eBook #8438; Greek from the Perseus Bywater text (tlg0086.tlg010.perseus-grc2).

The originals

Marble bust of Aristotle with short curly hair and a beard — **The likeness**ROMAN COPY AFTER A BRONZE BY LYSIPPOS · ORIGINAL c. 330 BCOur portrait is painted after it.Public domain (ancient marble, Palazzo Altemps, Museo Nazionale Romano, Rome, inv. 8575; photograph by Jastrow released into the public domain).

An open printed book in Greek type, with a woodcut headpiece and initial and handwritten notes in the margins — **The first printed Aristotle**His works in Greek, printed for the first time by Aldus Manutius in Venice, 1495–98. This spread opens the Prior Analytics.Aristotle, Opera, Greek (Venice: Aldus Manutius, 1495–98), the opening of the Prior Analytics. Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.