About the translation

This translation of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics is Michael Wiitala‘s heavily modified and updated version of W. D. Ross’ well-known translation. W. D. Ross’ translation was first published in 1925 in volume IX of The Complete Works of Aristotle translated into English (Oxford University Press). Ross’ translation is now in the public domain.

Wiitala’s aim in modifying and updating Ross’ translation has been to create a public domain translation of the Nicomachean Ethics that is more accessible to first-year college students with no background in philosophy or the liberal arts. Ross’ translation has been updated to a more contemporary idiom. Moreover, Wiitala tilts the balance between readability and strict adherence to the Greek more in the direction of readability. Ross generally–although not in all cases–adheres more strictly to the Greek.

In modifying and updating Ross’ translation, Wiitala also consulted C. D. C. Reeve’s recent translation of the Nicomachean Ethics, published by Hackett. That translation tends to adhere to the Greek more strictly than Ross’ does and also employs a more contemporary English idiom.

As to the Greek text, Wiitala consulted J. Bywater’s Aristotelis Ethica Nicomachea (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1894), which is available in the public domain here and in print here.

The PressBook formatting has been adapted from The Nicomachean Ethics, a title from the eCampusOntario Public Domain Core Collection. This work is in the Public Domain.

The translation as an ongoing project

This translation is still a work-in-progress. The ultimate goal is to have the whole of Ross’ translation modified and updated, and to add in the Bekker pages throughout. As things currently stand, this has only been accomplished with Books I-II. For Books III-VII, VIII.7-14, IX.1-2, and X.9, only relatively minor modifications and updates have been made to Ross’ translation, and Bekker pages have not yet been added. For Books VIII.1-6, IX.3-12, and X.1-8, Ross’ translation has been fully modified and updated, but the Bekker pages have not yet been added. When the Bekker pages are added, further updates might be made to the translation.

Notes on specific terms and phrases

In order to enhance readability, some notable modifications were made to Ross’ translation:

• The word eudaimonia, which Ross translates as “happiness,” has in Wiitala’s translation often been rendered as “a happy life.” That’s more what Aristotle means by eudaimonia and he certainly does not mean the feeling of happiness, which is what “happiness” most commonly refers to in contemporary English. Wiitala does, however, sometimes use the world “happiness” to render eudaimonia in the translation, when context makes “happiness” sound natural and “a happy life” sound forced.
• Aristotle famously claims that friends “live with each other” (τὸ συζῆν), which Ross translates as “live together.” In contemporary English the phrase “live together” is used idiomatically to mean “cohabitate” or “live in the same house.” This idiomatic meaning is not what Aristotle has in mind. What he has in mind is that friends live their lives together, as in spend a lot of time together and go through life’s journey together. Wiitala’s translation typically renders the phrase as “spending their lives together.”