I was asking my wife, who’s undergraduate majors included philosophy, what “Nicomachean” means.  She had no idea.  Neither do I.

Be that as it may, this reading was of book one of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics.  Aristotle was a student of Plato, who was a student of Socrates.  One of Aristotle’s students was Alexander the Great.  What an interesting time that would have been.

The reading has to do with the purpose of the study of ethics.  And it concludes that “happiness” is the most important purpose.  I’m not sure I have anything to add, except that it’s interesting to see the connections between different readings.  In this case, Buddhism’s main purpose is also to increase happiness, since all of life is suffering.  It’s unlikely, but possible, that there was some sort of connection between the Greeks and the Indians.  The ancient civilizations didn’t exist in a vacuum.  Communication was slow, but it did occur.  It would be interesting to know if there was any connections between the two cultures.

This work is available on Project Gutenberg.