Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle

Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics is a collection of ten books authored by Aristotle. The Nicomachean Ethics book attempts to advance the understanding of ethics. As a matter of fact, both book one and two intensely explore the concept of moral virtues. In book one, Aristotle asserts that an individual can have certain moral virtues and lack others. He goes further to explain how the concept of ‘good’ is defined in human life (Bartlewtt and Collins 12). He claims that every pursuit, action, thought or enquiry should be aimed at achieving some good.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More However, the fact that there are many actions that people engage in, Aristotle argues that their ends are countless. Moreover, every individual carry out his or her activities where the end results are expected to be good, a factor that secures the highest end of human life (Paka luk 13). According to Aristotle, happiness is the supreme goodness of life. He notes that different people hold diverse opinions on what constitute happiness. There are those who argue that honor is the greatest benefit of human life. Therefore, Aristotle asserts that anything good is most likely to be impressive in the same manner. Nevertheless, there is a considerable diversity of things which people perceive as good. He concludes that anything that constitutes happiness is a virtue (Bartlewtt and Collins 15). In this case, for an individual to be considered good, he or she has to demonstrate some moral virtues. Aristotle divides the human soul into two distinct parts whereby one is rational and the other is irrational (Pakaluk 46). In this case, he will be able to display external goods characterized by pleasant and noble acts that bring happiness to others. Aristotle also argues that politics is the highest level of good since it cultivates dispositions that lead to noble action s. He confirms that an individual full of reason get to be happy since the person may act in accordance to reason (Bartlewtt and Collins 19). Apparently, virtuous individuals are able to endure external misfortunes and end up living a happy life that ignorant people. Aristotle concludes that happiness is the key principle that causes people to practice virtues such as confidence, respect, prudence and wisdom. In book II Aristotle discusses and defines how virtue should be understood. According to the author, there are two types of virtues namely intellectual and moral virtues. Aristotle comprehends that people are born with the potential for moral virtuousness and this is enhanced by constant practice. Therefore, ethical virtues are gained by habituation since we have the ability to cultivate and nurture them. For Aristotle, a good government should help its citizens to habituate virtuous acts and make them proper to every occasion (Bartlewtt and Collins 26).Advertising Look ing for essay on ethics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Additionally, he laments that education can play vital role in making people take pleasure in good acts. Arguably, Aristotle declines the assumption that virtues and vices are feelings. He comments that the aspects are acquired through deliberate choices since they are natural. He suggest that though ethical virtues are determined by actions and feelings people should try to have the right feeling to act for the right purpose. Still on the argument, Aristotle identifies a crucial distinction between acting virtuously and being virtuous. He argues that one can only become virtuous after learning to behave virtuously (Pakaluk 46). However, he claims that since circumstances vary, there is no distinct rule to follow while exercising virtuousness. Instead, one can develop a mean policy between two extremes where one is excess and the other is scarce. As an example, Aristot le points of that the level of courage might vary depending on circumstances. Bartlewtt, Robert, and Susan Collins. Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, Chicago, USA: Chicago University Press, 2011.Print. Pakaluk, Michael. Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2005.Print.

North Pacific Right Whale Facts

North Pacific Right Whale Facts The North Pacific right whale is a critically endangered species. Along with the North Atlantic right whale and the southern right whale, the North Pacific right whale is one of three species of living right whales in the world. All three species of right whale are similar in appearance; their genetic pools are distinct, but they are otherwise indistinguishable. Fast Facts: North Pacific Right Whale Scientific Name: Eubalaena japonicaAverage Length: 42–52 feet Average Weight: 110,000–180,000 pounds Lifespan: 50–70 years Diet: CarnivorousRegion and Habitat: Northern Pacific ocean  Phylum: ChordataClass: Mammalia Order: ArtiodactylaInfraorder: CetaceaFamily: BalaenidaeConservation Status: Critically endangered   Description North Pacific right whales are robust, with a thick blubber layer and a girth sometimes exceeding 60 percent of their body length. Their bodies are black with irregular patches of white, and their flippers are large, broad and blunt. Their tail flukes are very broad (up to 50 percent of their body length), black, deeply notched, and smoothly tapered. Southern right whale breaches the surface off Puerto Piramedies, Argentina. Paula Ribas / Getty Images Female right whales give birth once every 2 to 3 years, starting around age 9 or 10. The oldest known right whale was a female who lived at least 70 years. Calves are 15–20 ft (4.5–6 m) long at birth. Adult right whales range between 42–52 ft (13–16 m) in length on average, but they can reach over 60 ft (18 m). They weigh over 100 metric tons. About one-fourth to one-third of a right whales total body length is the head. The lower jaw has a very pronounced curve and the upper jaw has 200–270 baleen plates, each narrow and between 2–2.8 meters long, with fine fringing hair.   Whales are born with patchy irregular spots, called callosities, on their faces, lower lips, and chin, above the eyes and around the blowholes. The callosities are made of keratinized tissue. By the time a whale is several months old, its callosities are inhabited by whale lice: small crustaceans who clean and eat algae off the whales body. Each whale has an estimated 7,500 whale lice. Habitat North Pacific right whales are among the most endangered whale species in the world. Two stocks are known to exist: western and eastern. The western North Pacific right whale lives in the Sea of Okhotsk and along the western Pacific rim; scientists estimate there are about 300 of them left. The eastern North Pacific right whales are found in the eastern Bering Sea. Their current population is believed to be between 25 and 50, which might be too small to ensure its persistence.   North Pacific right whales migrate seasonally. They travel northward in spring to high-latitude summer feeding grounds, and southward in fall for breeding and calving. In the past, these whales could be found from Japan and northern Mexico northward to the Sea of Okhotsk, the Bering Sea and the Gulf of Alaska; today, however, they are rare.   Diet North Pacific right whales are baleen whales, meaning that they use baleen (toothlike bone plates) to filter out their prey from sea water. They forage almost exclusively on zooplankton, tiny animals that are weak swimmers and prefer to drift with the current in massive groups. North Pacific right whales prefer large calanoid copepods- are crustaceans about the size of a grain of rice- but they will also eat krill and larval barnacles. They consume whatever gets picked up by the baleen.   Feeding takes place in the spring. In higher latitude feeding grounds, North Pacific right whales locate large surface patches of zooplankton, then swim slowly (about 3 miles per hour) through the patches with their mouths wide open. Each whale needs between 400,000 and 4.1 million calories each day, and when the patches are dense (about 15,000 copepods per cubic meter), whales can fulfill their daily needs in three hours. Less dense patches, around 3,600 per cm3, require a whale to spend 24 hours feeding in order to meet their caloric needs. The whales will not forage on densities below 3,000 per cm3.  Ã‚   Although most of their visible feeding takes place near the surface, the whales can dive also deeply to forage (between 200–400 meters below the surface). Adaptationsand Behavior Scientists believe that right whales use a combination of memory, matrilineal teaching, and communication to navigate between feeding and wintering grounds.  They also use an array of tactics to find plankton concentrations, relying on water temperatures, currents, and stratification to locate new patches. Right whales produce a variety of low-frequency sounds described by researchers as screams, moans, groans, belches, and pulses. The sounds are high amplitude, meaning they are detectable across long distances, and most range below 500 Hz, and some as low as 1,500–2,000 Hz. Scientists believe that these vocalizations may be contact messages, social signals, warnings or threats.  Ã‚   Throughout the year, right whales create surface active groups. In these groups, a lone female vocalizes a call; in response, up to 20 males surround her, vocalizing, leaping from the water, and splashing their flippers and flukes. There is little aggression or violence, nor are these behaviors necessarily connected with courtship routines. Whales only breed at certain times of the year, and females give birth in their wintering grounds nearly synchronously. Sources Gregr, Edward J., and Kenneth O. Coyle. The Biogeography of the North Pacific Right Whale (Eubalaena japonica). Progress in Oceanography 80.3 (2009): 188–98.  Kenney, Robert D. Are Right Whales Starving? Right Whale News 7.2 (2000).  -. Right Whales: Eubalaena . Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals (Third Edition). Eds. Wà ¼rsig, Bernd, J. G. M. Thewissen and Kit M. Kovacs: Academic Press, 2018. 817–22.  glacialis, E. japonica, and E. australisÃ…  irovic, Ana, et al. North Pacific Right Whales (Eubalaena Japonica) Recorded in the Northeastern Pacific Ocean in 2013. Marine Mammal Science 31.2 (2015): 800–07.