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any others objects of choice.
But neither is it wish, though it seems near to it; for choice cannot
relate to impossibles, and if any one said he chose them he would be
thought silly; but there may be a wish even for impossibles, e.g., for
immortality. And wish may relate to things that could in no way be
brought about by one s own efforts, e.g., that a particular actor or ath-
lete should win in a competition; but no one chooses such things, but
only the things that he thinks could be brought about by his own efforts.
Again, wish relates rather to the end, choice to the means; for instance,
we wish to be healthy, but we choose the acts which will make us healthy,
and we wish to be happy and say we do, but we cannot well say we
choose to be so; for, in general, choice seems to relate to the things that
are in our own power.
For this reason, too, it cannot be opinion; for opinion is thought to
relate to all kinds of things, no less to eternal things and impossible
things than to things in our own power; and it is distinguished by its
falsity or truth, not by its badness or goodness, while choice is distin-
guished rather by these.
Now with opinion in general perhaps no one even says it is identi-
cal. But it is not identical even with any kind of opinion; for by choosing
what is good or bad we are men of a certain character, which we are not
by holding certain opinions. And we choose to get or avoid something
good or bad, but we have opinions about what a thing is or whom it is
good for or how it is good for him; we can hardly be said to opine to get
or avoid anything. And choice is praised for being related to the right
object rather than for being rightly related to it, opinion for being truly
related to its object. And we choose what we best know to be good, but
we opine what we do not quite know; and it is not the same people that
are thought to make the best choices and to have the best opinions, but
some are thought to have fairly good opinions, but by reason of vice to
choose what they should not. If opinion precedes choice or accompanies
it, that makes no difference; for it is not this that we are considering, but
38/Aristotle
whether it is identical with some kind of opinion.
What, then, or what kind of thing is it, since it is none of the things
we have mentioned? It seems to be voluntary, but not all that is volun-
tary to be an object of choice. Is it, then, what has been decided on by
previous deliberation? At any rate choice involves a rational principle
and thought. Even the name seems to suggest that it is what is chosen
before other things.
3
Do we deliberate about everything, and is everything a possible subject
of deliberation, or is deliberation impossible about some things? We
ought presumably to call not what a fool or a madman would deliberate
about, but what a sensible man would deliberate about, a subject of
deliberation. Now about eternal things no one deliberates, e.g., about
the material universe or the incommensurability of the diagonal and the
side of a square. But no more do we deliberate about the things that
involve movement but always happen in the same way, whether of ne-
cessity or by nature or from any other cause, e.g., the solstices and the
risings of the stars; nor about things that happen now in one way, now in
another, e.g., droughts and rains; nor about chance events, like the find-
ing of treasure. But we do not deliberate even about all human affairs;
for instance, no Spartan deliberates about the best constitution for the
Scythians. For none of these things can be brought about by our own
efforts.
We deliberate about things that are in our power and can be done;
and these are in fact what is left. For nature, necessity, and chance are
thought to be causes, and also reason and everything that depends on
man. Now every class of men deliberates about the things that can be
done by their own efforts. And in the case of exact and self-contained
sciences there is no deliberation, e.g., about the letters of the alphabet
(for we have no doubt how they should be written); but the things that
are brought about by our own efforts, but not always in the same way,
are the things about which we deliberate, e.g., questions of medical treat-
ment or of money-making. And we do so more in the case of the art of
navigation than in that of gymnastics, inasmuch as it has been less ex-
actly worked out, and again about other things in the same ratio, and
more also in the case of the arts than in that of the sciences; for we have
more doubt about the former. Deliberation is concerned with things that
happen in a certain way for the most part, but in which the event is
Nicomachean Ethics/39
obscure, and with things in which it is indeterminate. We call in others
to aid us in deliberation on important questions, distrusting ourselves as
not being equal to deciding.
We deliberate not about ends but about means. For a doctor does
not deliberate whether he shall heal, nor an orator whether he shall per-
suade, nor a statesman whether he shall produce law and order, nor does
any one else deliberate about his end. They assume the end and consider
how and by what means it is to be attained; and if it seems to be pro-
duced by several means they consider by which it is most easily and best
produced, while if it is achieved by one only they consider how it will be
achieved by this and by what means this will be achieved, till they come
to the first cause, which in the order of discovery is last. For the person
who deliberates seems to investigate and analyse in the way described
as though he were analysing a geometrical construction (not all investi-
gation appears to be deliberation for instance mathematical investiga-
tions but all deliberation is investigation), and what is last in the order
of analysis seems to be first in the order of becoming. And if we come
on an impossibility, we give up the search, e.g., if we need money and
this cannot be got; but if a thing appears possible we try to do it. By
possible things I mean things that might be brought about by our own
efforts; and these in a sense include things that can be brought about by
the efforts of our friends, since the moving principle is in ourselves. The
subject of investigation is sometimes the instruments, sometimes the use
of them; and similarly in the other cases sometimes the means, some-
times the mode of using it or the means of bringing it about. It seems,
then, as has been said, that man is a moving principle of actions; now
deliberation is about the things to be done by the agent himself, and
actions are for the sake of things other than themselves. For the end
cannot be a subject of deliberation, but only the means; nor indeed can
the particular facts be a subject of it, as whether this is bread or has
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