While various philosophers had influenced Christendom since its earliest times, in Western Europe Aristotle became 'the Philosopher'. In the Middle Ages, a synthesis between Aristotelian ethics and Christian theology became widespread, in Europe as introduced by Albertus Magnus. Many parts of the Nicomachean Ethics are well known in their own right, within different fields. It therefore indirectly became critical in the development of all modern philosophy as well as European law and theology. The Nicomachean Ethics is widely considered one of the most important historical philosophical works and had an important influence on the European Middle Ages, becoming one of the core works of medieval philosophy. Ethics is about how individuals should best live, while the study of politics is from the perspective of a law-giver, looking at the good of a whole community. It is therefore connected to Aristotle's other practical work, the Politics, which similarly aims at people becoming good. In other words, it is not only a contemplation about good living, because it also aims to create good living.

Ethics, as now separated out for discussion by Aristotle, is practical rather than theoretical, in the original Aristotelian senses of these terms. In his Metaphysics, Aristotle described how Socrates, the friend and teacher of Plato, had turned philosophy to human questions, whereas pre-Socratic philosophy had only been theoretical. The theme of the work is a Socratic question previously explored in the works of Plato, Aristotle's friend and teacher, of how men should best live.

Alternatively, the work may have been dedicated to his father, who was also called Nicomachus. The title is often assumed to refer to his son Nicomachus, to whom the work was dedicated or who may have edited it (although his young age makes this less likely). The work, which plays a pre-eminent role in defining Aristotelian ethics, consists of ten books, originally separate scrolls, and is understood to be based on notes from his lectures at the Lyceum. The Nicomachean Ethics is the name normally given to Aristotle's best-known work on ethics.

Nichomachean Ethics by Aristotle