The Text of the Nicomachean Ethics

Extract

The following emendations, if sound, illustrate the relation between the two chief MSS.

(a) K^b shows a gloss that has ousted the true reading, while L^b has a conflation of the two:

1097b 14: τ δ αὒταρκες τίθεμεν μονούμενον ἄρκιον κα αἱρετν ποιεῖ τν βον κα μηδενς νδε L^b: αἱρετν κα ἄρκιον M^b (which is better, as it does not divide ἄρκιον from μηδ. ένδ.): K^b has αἱρετν alone. I suspect the true reading to be ἄρκιον alone. On this αἱρετν was a mistaken gloss: it is out of place here, as it belongs to the concept τέλειον which was discussed in §§ 1–5 and to which we return below, ἒτι δ πάντωναἱρετωτάτην μ συναριθμονμένην. The poetic ἄρκιον is used to explain αὔτ-αρκες, and is itself paraphrased κα μηδενς νδε. αύτ is explained by μονούμενον, just as b 9 αὐτῷ was explained by τῷ ντι βίον μονώτην (which shows that μονούμενον goes with βίον, not ὃ).