Aristotle, like most thinkers of his period, divides thinking about morality into three categories.
- Moral actions with respect to the city-state (polis) as a whole, or politics
- Moral actions with respect to the household (oikos) or economics
- Morality as pertaining to the individual character (ethos) or ethics proper
Aristotle writes about these topics in several works, most notably the Nicomachean Ethics, but also the shorter Eudemian Ethics as well as the Politics and Rhetoric.
Aristotle's account of ethics is often called "eudaimonian" from a a Greek word "eudaimonia" sometimes translated as "happiness" but which means something closer to flourishing or well-being. This refers to flourishing of humans qua humans rather than simply to momentary pleasure. For Aristotle, eudaimonia is something aimed at for itself, an end rather than a means to an end. Since humans, for Aristotle are by nature "political animals" (meaning that they gather in cities or "poleis"), ethics necessary involves considering humans in social and political context rather than merely as isolated individuals.
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