The history of Aristotle's two ethical treatises is more turbulent than most people realize.

For much of antiquity, the 𝘌𝘶𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘌𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘴 (EE) was the ethical text — the 𝘕𝘪𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘯 𝘌𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘴 (NE) nearly disappeared. When the NE resurfaced, its culmination in contemplative theoria fit far more neatly with Christian contemplative ideology than the EE's "mixed" account of the good life ever did.

That 𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗲𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗮 𝗱𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗷𝘂𝗱𝗴𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁: the EE got recast as the earlier, cruder draft, superseded by the more "mature" NE. 𝗦𝗶𝗿 𝗔𝗻𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗻𝘆 𝗞𝗲𝗻𝗻𝘆 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗱𝗼𝗴𝗺𝗮 head-on in 1978, using stylometric analysis of the shared "common books."

In a small, provisional study, 𝘄𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗰𝗵𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆 a bit further — using my developmental model, 𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘗𝘭𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘮 (TP), to look not at word choice or doctrine, but at the syntactic architecture of the sentences themselves.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗽𝗶𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲: NE → EE → Politics as a progressive stabilization of one syntactic organization — while the Magna Moralia shows a genuinely different developmental trajectory, hinting at different authorship.

Still a hypothesis, not proof — but a fresh angle on a very old debate.

https://medium.com/@romanangerer/transcendental-pluralism-developmental-syntax-the-chronology-of-aristotle-ba0c74e57a29?sharedUserId=romanangerer