Abstract

This paper is concerned with Aristotle’s role and impact on discussions coming down to us from ancient and recent times about the relation betwen the concepts of ethics and freedom. Departing from Aristotle’s works, I attempt to answer the questions “What is freedom?” and “What is the place of freedom in the construction of ethics?” Aristotle defines ethical action and affection in accordance with virtue; and he defines virtue as a habit concerning deliberation, which is determined by reason or by the will of reasonable human being with the aim to strike a middle point between the extremes. Aristotle conceives freedom as “the reason of the being” of virtue, because deliberation, the essential feature of virtue, points to man’s capacity to choose among definite alternatives the ones grounded on knowledge and will