This ethical treatise by Miskawayh is first and foremost a great work of synthesis. Miskawayh belongs to the Greek-inspired 'falsafa' tradition of Islamic philosophy which built on a synthesis of Aristotle, Neoplatonism and monotheism, transmitted via Syriac into Arabic. In addition to his Greek sources, Miskawayh weaves in Qur'an verses and hadith, insights from Islamic theology and the broader 岣kma (wisdom) tradition. There are also Arabic and Persian poets quoted. While this gives Miskawayh a different metaethical and metaphysical foundation compared to Aristotle, the core of his practical ethics is firmly Aristotelian, with its central tenet of virtue as the mean between vices. Another distasteful aspect of the Aristotelian tradition that he firmly maintains is only taking free men seriously as moral agents. He speaks about how to handle "womanfolk and slaves" as objects for the virtuous man, they are never accepted as moral subjects (except if the exhibit vices).
To harmonize Aristotle and revealed religion, like most philosophers of his time, Miskawayh reads Aristotle through his late ancient Neoplatonic commentators. Aristotle's hylomorphism is replaced with a firm belief in the soul as a separate, immaterial and immortal substance. Adding the Neoplatonic 'One' to the Aristotelian system also makes it easy to translate Aristotle as a monotheist. This is how Miskawayh reads Aristotle, just like his other Muslim and Christian contemporaries did. Apart from Aristotle, there is also a good deal of Galen (making both the heart and brain vital), and some Stoicism (although in central questions such as the value of wealth, Miskawayh takes the Aristotelian position). He quotes al-Kindi, the first great Greek-inspired Arabic philosopher, at length. As is typical of his time, many sayings are attributed to "Socrates" while in reality being from a variety of late ancient sources.
What is most interesting to me is that he maintains the Aristotelian focus on the necessity to be 'madan墨' (civic) for virtue. Man must be part of a society to be virtuous, and there is a long chapter on how to acquire and maintain friendships. This is an essential part of the good life. This makes Miskawayh explicitly anti-ascetic. He condemns hiding away in a cave or other such practices in order to get closer to God. This creates a tension with his Neoplatonic leanings. After all, he claims that the completion of man is his soul's liberation from its contingent physical body. If this is so, why is it important to the soul's health to be a political animal and a liberal friend while here on earth? Why could this not be replaced with meditating on the One, from whom all Good emanates? I don't think that there is a direct contradiction here, but it is a point of tension between the Aristotelian focus on the good life here on earth, and the Neoplatonic union with the One.
Overall, he manages to combine all these strands of thought into an original synthesis that is well written and lucid. It was a very interesting read that inspired me to keep doing research into the history of ethics in the Islamic world.