Aristotle offers a critique of Plato’s view of the good in the Nicomachean Ethics. He claims that the good is spoken of “in as many ways as being” and that the good is clearly not “some common universal” (1096a). If there are many ways of discussing the good, and the meaning of the good varies according to particular circumstances, then what is meant by the good, according to Aristotle, cannot necessarily entail some “common form” (1096a). Aristotle suggests that many speak of the good metaphysically, qualitatively, and relationally, to name a few. For this reason, Aristotle finds it troublesome to immediately consider the good under a framework that assumes an unnecessarily grandiose and unifying “one.” Furthermore, reference to the good as
