Abstract

In order to provide an interpretation for NE I 4 1095a31-b13, this paper argues that Aristotle's  digression in that section serves to characterize the recently started research as promising, opposing it, although not explicitly, to the rigid Socratic-Platonic way of doing Ethics or Politics. To this end, a somewhat novel interpretation of the term that (hoti) is proposed, according to which it refers to the principle sought for, and not to the starting-point of the research. This interpretation also refuses to see a reference, in the mentioned passage, to the form of acquisition of moral virtue or prudence (phronesis), replacing it by a reference to the acquisition of a body of knowledge or science, the Ethics or Politics.

Keywords: Ethical research, principles, good education