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Influences of earlier Greek ethical systems

Aristotle's ethics builds upon earlier Greek ethics, particularly that of Aristotle's teacher Plato and his teacher, Socrates. One important distinction is that Socrates didn't leave any written work, Plato left works aimed more toward popular consumption, and Aristotle left more scholarly works. More frequently than Plato, Aristotle notes exceptions to his general rules and the lack of precision in his ethics. The overall directions of each of these philosophers, however, were quite similar.

Socrates was the first Greek philosopher to concentrate on ethics. This concentration on ethics probably started as a response to sophism, which was a popular school of thought at the time that emphasized rhetoric, moral relativism and argument against traditional Greek religion (they used rhetoric to argue against many other traditions too). Sophists raised many moral problems in contemporary society without offering solutions.

Socrates, Plato and Aristotle all taught character-based ethics in which people should pursue virtue (arete) to attain happiness or flourishing (eudaimonia). All saw virtuous behavior as something which can be taught and practised. They all thought that ethics is based on reason, and that there were logical reasons for behaving virtuously. This contrasted with the moral relativism of the sophists, who argued that many different behaviors could be seen as ethical by different societies. In fact, similar arguments still occur in philosophical ethics today.

In light of these fundamental similarities, the differences in ethics between Socrates, Plato and Aristotle seem slight. The major difference is that Socrates and Plato thought that knowledge of virtuous behavior was enough to ensure that people followed it, and that nobody did evil knowingly. Aristotle disagreed (and most later philosophers agree with him on this point), saying that many people know the bad effects of their actions, but give in to their desires anyway because of weak wills. Plato presented only four cardinal virtues: wisdom, courage, temperance and justice. Aristotle expanded and elaborated on this list quite extensively.