એરિસ્ટોટલ considered ethics to be a practical વિજ્ઞાન, i.e., one mastered by doing rather than merely reasoning. Further, એરિસ્ટોટલ believed that ethical knowledge is not certain knowledge (such as તત્ત્વમીમાંસા or epistemology) but is general knowledge. He wrote several treatises on ethics, including most notably, "Nichomachean Ethics", in which he outlines what is commonly called virtue ethics.

એરિસ્ટોટલ taught that virtue has to do with the proper function of a thing. An eye is only a good eye in so much as it can see, because the proper function of an eye is sight. એરિસ્ટોટલ reasoned that man must have a function uncommon to anything else, and that this function must be an activity of the soul. એરિસ્ટોટલ identified the best activity of the soul as eudaimonia: a happiness or joy that pervades the good જીવન. એરિસ્ટોટલ taught that to achieve the good જીવન, one must live a balanced જીવન and avoid excess. This balance, he taught, varies among different persons and situations, and exists as a golden mean between two vices - one an excess and one a deficiency.

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