=2. The Ethics of Aristotle.= We have seen that nature phenomena are of two classes,――those mechanically related, and those related as to their purposes or ends. Physics is concerned with the first class; psychology is concerned with the second class. But in a special way are ethics and politics sciences of the phenomena of the second class――sciences of teleologically related phenomena. Moral life is an unfolding essence having a possibility and an actuality. The Possibility or Matter of the ethical life is our feelings, temperament, disposition, impulses, and perceptions――just those psychological factors that make up the endowment of the human personality. The ultimate Form or actuality of the ethical life is the reason. The reason as the goal of the moral being determines its character. Man is distinctly a rational being. Virtue is the process of the ethical life from its possibilities to its actuality; it is the essence of the ethical life. Virtue is that continuous state of mind that makes rational activity possible. So much for the factors that make the ethical situation; the natural endowments of the mind are its material, the reason is its goal, while the means of developing the natural endowments into rational activity is virtue. The situation would be simple enough for us as moral beings if, in our striving, each had only himself and his own development to consider. But man lives in a world of men, and his highest good is determined somewhat by his environment,――by riches, bodily comforts, success. These are not essentials but only accessories, and the lack of them is only a limitation. The essential factor is the rational activity. Nevertheless, these modify the definition of what we mean when we define rational activity as the highest Good or Form of the moral life. For the question which Aristotle proposes in his notable treatise of Ethics is, What is the end or supreme good of human action? The highest Good for a man among men is Happiness, or well-being; that includes not only rational activity, but also the pleasures that accrue to such activity. But what is happiness? It is an end in itself, and not the means to anything else; it is the result of functioning, a state of conscious vitality; it accords with the law of excellence of that functioning. Perfect happiness is, therefore, partly the result of one’s own individual effort, partly dependent on circumstance. While virtue is the measure of the worth of different pleasures, yet pleasures do not always attend our acts in our present society. The greatest Good is happiness, but since this depends in part on external goods, the goal to which we should directly attend――the factor within our control――is rational activity.