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[11]
And we deliberate not about ends, but about means. A doctor does not deliberate whether
he is to cure his patient, nor an orator whether he is to convince his audience, nor a
statesman whether he is to secure good government, nor does anyone else debate about the
end of his profession or calling; they take some end for granted, and consider how and by
what means it can be achieved. If they find that there are several means of achieving it,
they proceed to consider which of these will attain it most easily and best. If there is
only one means by which it can be accomplished, they ask how it is to be accomplished by
that means, and by what means that means can itself be achieved, until they reach the
first link in the chain of causes, which is the last in the order of discovery. （For when deliberating one seems in the procedure
described to be pursuing an investigation or analysis that resembles the analysis of a
figure in geometry1 —
1 The reference is to the analytical method of solving a problem: the figure required to be drawn is assumed to have been drawn, and then we analyse it and ask what conditions it implies, until we come down to something that we know how to draw already.
Aristotle in 23 Volumes, Vol. 19, translated by H. Rackham. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1934.
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