The influence which Aristotle's moral and political theories
have had in later ages has followed a tortuous path determined
largely by the fact that Aristotle's cautious discrimination of
the practical sciences from the arts and the theoretic sciences is
rarely part of the influence he exercises, but instead some of the
broad analogies-criticized by Aristotle in the doctrines of Socrates
and Plato-by which doing is reduced to knowing and both
are identified with making, have controlled the interpretation
of Aristotle's doctrines. The influence of the Aristotelian ethics
has been limited largely to the repetition in uncongenial contexts,
usually traceable to Platonic sources, of his wise sayings
concerning the virtues, choice, deliberation, free-will, friendship,
prudence, wisdom, pleasure, happiness. Much of the language
in which ethics and moral problems are discussed still
bears an Aristotelian impress, but the particularity which his
constant insistence on choice and the efficient causes of action
brought to his words has been lost in the generality which has
come into ethics by emphasis on forms, actions, and ends. During
the Christian Middle Ages the ethics of Aristotle was introduced
into a moral theory built on eternal goods and divine
love which were often described in terms borrowed from Plato.