Book Description
This new collection of Aristotle's political writings provides the student with all the necessary materials for a full understanding of his work as a political scientist. In addition to a revised and extended introduction, this expanded Cambridge Texts edition contains an extensive guide to further reading and an index of names with biographical notes. Presentation of The Politics and The Constitution of Athens in a single volume will make this the most attractive and convenient student edition of these seminal works currently available. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Aristotle's 'Politics' still essential
The Greek philosopher and scientist Aristotle possessed one of the most remarkable intellects of all time.He contributed to the body of knowledge in areas as diverse as logic and biology, ethics and physics, psychologyand politics.Although his work 'The Politics' has been widely published,few versions have been as effective as this in placing his politicalcommentary into the conext of his time.Certainly this contextualisationis this edition's greatest strength, and the feature which most clearlysets it apart from most other currently availabletranslations.

'ThePolitics' remains an essential feature in the literature of politics andphilosophy.Whether the reader is a first year political science studentor a senior lecturer seeking to replace that well-worn second (or third)copy of an earlier edition, the particular book will be the ideal choice. ... Read more

Book Description

Aristotle, great Greek philosopher, researcher, reasoner, and writer, born at Stagirus in 384 BCE, was the son of Nicomachus, a physician, and Phaestis. He studied under Plato at Athens and taught there (367-347); subsequently he spent three years at the court of a former pupil, Hermeias, in Asia Minor and at this time married Pythias, one of Hermeias's relations. After some time at Mitylene, in 343-2 he was appointed by King Philip of Macedon to be tutor of his teen-aged son Alexander. After Philip's death in 336, Aristotle became head of his own school (of 'Peripatetics'), the Lyceum at Athens. Because of anti-Macedonian feeling there after Alexander's death in 323, he withdrew to Chalcis in Euboea, where he died in 322.

Nearly all the works Aristotle prepared for publication are lost; the priceless ones extant are lecture-materials, notes, and memoranda (some are spurious). They can be categorized as follows: I Practical: Nicomachean Ethics; Great Ethics (Magna Moralia); Eudemian Ethics; Politics; Economics (on the good of the family); On Virtues and Vices. II Logical: Categories; Analytics (Prior and Posterior); Interpretation; Refutations used by Sophists; Topica. III Physical: Twenty-six works (some suspect) including astronomy, generation and destruction, the senses, memory, sleep, dreams, life, facts about animals, etc. IV Metaphysics: on being as being. V Art: Rhetoric and Poetics. VI Other works including the Constitution of Athens; more works also of doubtful authorship. VII Fragments of various works such as dialogues on philosophy and literature; and of treatises on rhetoric, politics and metaphysics.

The Loeb Classical Library edition of Aristotle is in twenty-three volumes.

Customer Reviews (7)

Ace of Spades
Holy Crap, its Faulders!My eyes are in disbelief at that chance of that, chance being one of the seven ways things come about in the world of men.We have to talk again, I miss your tutelage.Anyway,Aristotle has all the symptons of his thought fully functional in this treatise; meticulous detail, raging logic, a plethera of topics.But The Art of Rhetoric separates itself with ocean-sized gap from the rest of his work due to its immense practicality.Yes we know all about his logical prowlness, but ever tried to argue with a person who does not use logic?Not easy...But the methods Aristotle outlines to provoke enthusiasm, move crowds, and dominate in court apply to all human beings.Those who read (and reread because it does require that), will notice their communication skills increase drastically. He goes beneath the skin, into the unconscience of humanity to deliver unto us, an ace in up our sleeve, what can only be described as an intagible that will remain present the rest of our lives.The knowledge of rhetoric installs an intrinsic set of skills usefull in all walks of life, in any situation.I myself cannnot recall maybe even a few sentences of his actual work, but I put the book to full use every day of my life now, whether I'm aware of it or not.You need not be a philosphical mind, or have any interest at all in any sort of intellectual discovery, and this book still applies to you.We all need to speak; we all get to where we want to be by speaking.Might as well be good at it don't you think?READ IT AND GET POWERFUL!

Greatness
How couldyou not give this book five stars? Aristotle's Rhetoric contains the greatness of an all-time classic and I shall praise the book following Aristotle's instructions on how to praise something (1. 9). The Rhetoric is either the first or among the first books that teaches a speaker how to address an audience. It comes from the time of great scholarly activity in Ancient Greece and clearly exceeds one's expectations. Every page is consistently insightful and each paragraph teaches something new about human nature. We should invent an "Aristotelian Rhetoric" award and give it to speakers who are trying their best to persuade an audience. Finally, Aristotle compares to Shakespeare when it comes to clarifying the deepest and most obvious concerns we all have as human persons.

The translation of Lawson-Tancred is very readable and clear. His notes before each chapter makes one's reading of the Rhetoric smooth and enjoyable. Two things made me sad when I first opened the book: the chapters have been re-organized and I am depending on the Bekker numbers (ex. 1354a1) to find my way in other texts and the font is kind of tiny. But I do understand that the re-organized chapters logically follow the text and the tiny font becomes easier to read and allows for a modest-sized tome.

Aristotle writes that we pity the person who cannot enjoy a good thing, and a person who cannot enjoy the Rhetoric certainly ought to be pitied.

The Art Of Rhetoric
The content of this book is a key to modern democracy understanding, and the art of persuasiveness. The kind of book that you want to make sure your child read. I couldn't put it away. You should read it.

Very weak translation of a very important book
Both the introduction and the translation by Hugh Lawson-Tancred are very much below the standard one expects from Penguin. Most importantly, the English of the translation is frequently incomprehensible. I advise everyone who wants to study this masterpiece of a book to use another edition, e.g. that of George Kennedy, published by Oxford in 1991, or the Loeb edition. That is, if you want to understand why so many people in so many ages found this book brilliant!

The Headwaters of the River of Persuasion
As a trial lawyer and a pragmatist, I've long dismissed philosophy as the useless art of contemplating one's navel.That assessment began to change recently when I audited a continuing legal education seminar in which the speaker analyzed trial advocacy on the model of Aristotle's "Rhetoric."His speech was brief and his analysis superficial, but he'd aroused my curiosity.I got this book and read it.

The general principles Aristotle formulated for forensic rhetoric over 2,000 years ago still hold true in the 21st century courtroom.Some of the specifics have changed (e.g. no torture for slave witnesses), but human nature hasn't, and human persuasion hasn't, either. Aristotle's "Rhetoric" should be required reading for all first year law students.I regret not reading it 30 years ago.Apparently philosphers do more than just stare at their navels. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description
Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics deals with character and its proper development in the acquisition of thoughtful habits directed toward appropriate ends. The articles in this unique collection, many new or not readily available, form a continuos commentary on the Ethics. Philosophers and classicists alike will welcome them. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Getting Back to Aristotle
In this collection of 21 essays, most written during the 1970s, Amelie Rorty has pulled together some penetrating and diverse analyses of the Nicomachean Ethics (and related works) of Aristotle.One of the valuable features of the book is its arrangement: the essays are grouped according to the books of the Ethics of which they treat.Thus, the essays on *akrasia* are grouped together. The two best essays in the book, in my humble opinion, are John M. Cooper's "Aristotle on Friendship," and Martha Craven Nussbaum's "Shame, Separateness, and Political Unity: Aristotle's Criticism of Plato."Both lead one to pursue further reading in these interesting topics.Nussbaum, for example, not only provides a critique of Plato's concept of self-respect, particularly in The Republic, and compares it to Aristotle's presentation in the Ethics and the Politics; she also brings in John Rawls' A Theory of Justice, and two novels by Henry James. For those looking for some guidance, and some analytic tools, in reading Aristotle's ethical works, this is a great resource. ... Read more

Book Description
Preceding Being and Time, this work shows Heidegger attempting, through the use of novel vocabulary, to find his personal philosophical voice. As he elaborates a phenomenology of factical life--concrete human life as it is lived in relation to the world--Heidegger prepares readers for actual engagement in the work of phenomenology and introduces a phenomenological interpretation of Aristotle, one of the pivotal influences in the development of his philosophy. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

A perfect example of hermeneutics
This is one of the best examples of hermeneutics I have ever come across. Gadamer systematized the dicipline of hermeneutics but it was Heidegger's genius who developed the practice of hermeneutics years before, explaining the development of the history of philosophical ideas.

Not for the Faint-Hearted, But an Excellent Book
This text holds a key place in the development of Heidegger's thought.As such, it is a must-read for scholars or philosophers who are already familiar with Heidegger's work.It is not, however, a good place to begin studying Heidegger.This is due more to the bizarre translation than to the much lamented difficulty of Heidegger's thoughts.Here, the reader should keep in mind that this text is a compilation of lecture notes by both Heidegger and his students, and so naturally lacks the polished form of a philosophical paper or book.Our translator, however, did not assist our understanding in the slightest by his inaccuracies and rigid word usages.

As for this being a book on Aristotle, one should have no illusions.However, the reader who found this disappointingly "flaky" seems to have missed the subtitle of the book (which our translator inscrutably renders as), "Initiation into Phenomenological Research."The lecture, like the "Natorp Report" of 1922, represents Heidegger's attempt to articulate a "hermeneutics of facticity" as the systematic starting point for a reading of key Aristotelian texts.

This book contains fascinating explorations of the idea of philosophy, critiques of culture and of intellectual discourse, and difficult but insightful expositions of the basic "categories" of everyday human life.Here is the early Heidegger at his best, if not at his most reader-friendly.

Heidegger's Aristotle
Even though the way in which Heidegger scholars concentrate on his relationship to Aristotle is extremely conservative, this book itself is very interesting.If you are looking for an introductory book on Aristotle, this is not it.

Misleading title
I was hoping for a book that would present some new slant on Aristotle's thought.I didn't get it.This is just another attempt by Heidegger to set out his own philosophy, with all of the tortured grammatical constructions and neologisms that one might expect. I think that Heidegger is most interesting when he's actually engaging other philosophers, and less so when setting out his own bizarre and flakey ideas.So if you're expecting to get some new insight into Aristotle, look elsewhere. ... Read more

Book Description
Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, based on lectures that he gave in Athens in the fourth century BCE, is one of the most significant works in moral philosophy, and has profoundly influenced the whole course of subsequent philosophical endeavor. Topics covered include the role of luck in human wellbeing, responsibility, courage, justice, friendship and pleasure. This accessible new translation follows the Greek text closely and also provides a non-Greek reader with something of the flavor of the original. The volume also includes a historical and philosophical introduction and notes on further reading.Download Description
This text gives great insight to the history of philosophy, and changes the way you think about ethics and morals.Excellent philosophical reading.A very important book for anyone who takes interest in their beliefs. Please note:This book is easy to read in true text, not scanned images that can sometimes be difficutl to decipher.This eBook has bookmarks at chaper headings and is printable. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Doing the right thing
Aristotle was a philosopher in search of the chief good for human beings. This chief good is eudaimonia, which is often translated as 'happiness' (but can also be translated as 'thriving' or 'flourishing'). Aristotle sees pleasure, honour and virtue as significant 'wants' for people, and then argues that virtue is the most important of these.

In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle makes the claim that happiness is something which is both precious and final. This seems to be so because it is a first principle or ultimate starting point. For, it is for the sake of happiness that we do everything else, and we regard the cause of all good things to be precious and divine. Moreover, since happiness is an activity of the soul in accordance with complete and perfect virtue, it is necessary to consider virtue, as this will be the best way of studying happiness.

How many of us today speak of happiness and virtue in the same breath? Aristotle's work in the Nicomachean Ethics is considered one of his greatest achievements, and by extension, one of the greatest pieces of philosophy from the ancient world. When the framers of the American Declaration of Independence were thinking of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, there is little doubt they had an acquaintance with Aristotle's work connecting happiness, virtue, and ethics together.

When one thinks of ethical ideas such as an avoidance of extremes, of taking the tolerant or middle ground, or of taking all things in moderation, one is tapping into Aristotle's ideas. It is in the Nicomachean Ethics that Aristotle proposes the Doctrine of the Mean - he states that virtue is a 'mean state', that is, it aims for the mean or middle ground. However, Aristotle is often misquoted and misinterpreted here, for he very quickly in the text disallows the idea of the mean to be applied in all cases. There are things, actions and emotions, that do not allow the mean state. Thus, Aristotle tends to view virtue as a relative state, making the analogy with food - for some, two pounds of meat might be too much food, but for others, it might be too little. The mean exists between the state of deficiency, too little, and excessiveness, too much.

Aristotle proposes many different examples of virtues and vices, together with their mean states. With regard to money, being stingy and being illiberal with generosity are the extremes, the one deficient and the other excessive. The mean state here would be liberality and generosity, a willingness to buy and to give, but not to extremes. Anger, too, is highlighted as having a deficient state (too much passivity), an excessive state (too much passion) and a mean state (a gentleness but firmness with regard to emotions).

Aristotle states that one of the difficulties with leading a virtuous life is that it takes a person of science to find the mean between the extremes (or, in some cases, Aristotle uses the image of a circle, the scientist finding the centre). Many of us, being imperfect humans, err on one side or the other, choosing in Aristotle's words, the lesser of two evils. Aristotle's wording here, that a scientist is the only one fully capable of virtue, has a different meaning for scientist - this is a pre-modern, pre-Enlightenment view; for Aristotle, the person of science is one who is capable of observation and calculation, and this can take many different forms.

Aristotle uses different kinds of argumentation in the Nicomachean Ethics. He uses a dialectical method, as well as a functional method. In the dialectical method, there are opposing ideas held in tension, whose interactions against each other yield a result - this is often how the mean between extremes is derived. However, there are other times that Aristotle seems to prefer a more direct, functional approach. Both of these methods lead to the same understanding for Aristotle's sense of the rational - that humanity's highest or final good is happiness.

There is a discussion of the human soul (for this is where virtue and happiness reside). Aristotle argues that virtue is not a natural state; we are not born with nor do we acquire through any natural processes virtue, but rather through 'habitation', an embedding process or enculturation that makes these a part of our soul. However, it is not sufficient for Aristotle's virtue that one merely function as a virtuous person or that virtuous things be done. This is not a skill, but rather an art, and to be virtuous, one must live virtuously and act virtuously with intention as well as form.

Of course, one of the implications here is that virtue is a quantifiable thing, that periodically resurfaces in later philosophies. How do we calculate virtue?

This is a difficult question, and not one that Aristotle answers in any definitive way. However, more important than this is the key difference that Aristotle displayed setting himself apart from his tutor Plato; rather than seeing the possession of 'the good' or 'virtue' as the highest ideal, Aristotle is concerned with the practical aspects, the ethics of this. Based on Aristotle's lectures in Athens in the fourth century BCE, this remains one of the most important works on ethical and moral philosophy in history.

... Read more

Book Description
At last a complete translation of Aristotle's classic that is both faithful and readable. In this volume, Joe Sachs (translator of Aristotle's Physics and Metaphysics) supplements his excellent translation with well-chosen notes and a glossary of important terms. This is a major translation of a seminal book in Ethics. Featured and discussed on C-Span Books Fall 2002 Review of new books as one of the twenty recommended books for Fall reading. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Unreadable
Unreadable.A curiosity.A long way from English.The difficult made impossible.Many sentences, long and short, like, "So let these things have been spoken of just this much." Page 9.The footnotes are somewhat clearer than the text.

Exceptional translation, excellent introduction
I've read and taught the Nicomachean Ethics several times in translation, and working through it this time with Joe Sachs' exceptional translation is what for the first time brought the urgency and interest of the text alive for me.I'd always said, in response to student complaints, something like: I know that the book itself, in style, is kind of boring and dry, but the subject matter could not be more important so try and look past that.With this translation, I didn't need to say that.You feel the urgency and importance of the subject in the writing itself.Joe Sachs has done a remarkable thing in bringing this text -- easily one of the most important philosophical works ever written -- to life.

As if that weren't enough, he has also written an excellent and very short introduction to the text that goes a long way towards overcoming many of the commmon misunderstandings of Aristotle's ethics, especially misconceptions tied tothe Latin influences on translations of the text.Without any effort to give a "definitive" and inevitably partial account of the text as a whole, he confines himself to addressing three central concepts -- habit, the mean, and the noble -- shows how these have led many readers of the text astray, and points readers towards the passages in Aristotle that can overcome or resolve some of the basic misunderstandings (incidentally, one of these misunderstandings is evident in another review of this translation by FrKurt Mesick, and I can only assume he either didn't read the intro, or he disagreed with it in favor of more standard "textbook" interpretations of Aristotle, or that he is commenting on another translation and just happened to include his review under this one).Along the way, Sachs shows that the common reading of Aristotle as a kind of reformed or anti-Platonist is just false -- and that Aristotle's ethics is richer and more compelling than is usually thought precisely because of the elements of Platonism that Aristotle wisely retains.

Doing the right thing...
Aristotle was a philosopher in search of the chief good for human beings. This chief good is eudaimonia, which is often translated as 'happiness' (but can also be translated as 'thriving' or 'flourishing'). Aristotle sees pleasure, honour and virtue as significant 'wants' for people, and then argues that virtue is the most important of these.

In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle makes the claim that happiness is something which is both precious and final. This seems to be so because it is a first principle or ultimate starting point. For, it is for the sake of happiness that we do everything else, and we regard the cause of all good things to be precious and divine. Moreover, since happiness is an activity of the soul in accordance with complete and perfect virtue, it is necessary to consider virtue, as this will be the best way of studying happiness.

How many of us today speak of happiness and virtue in the same breath? Aristotle's work in the Nicomachean Ethics is considered one of his greatest achievements, and by extension, one of the greatest pieces of philosophy from the ancient world. When the framers of the American Declaration of Independence were thinking of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, there is little doubt they had an acquaintance with Aristotle's work connecting happiness, virtue, and ethics together.

When one thinks of ethical ideas such as an avoidance of extremes, of taking the tolerant or middle ground, or of taking all things in moderation, one is tapping into Aristotle's ideas. It is in the Nicomachean Ethics that Aristotle proposes the Doctrine of the Mean - he states that virtue is a 'mean state', that is, it aims for the mean or middle ground. However, Aristotle is often misquoted and misinterpreted here, for he very quickly in the text disallows the idea of the mean to be applied in all cases. There are things, actions and emotions, that do not allow the mean state. Thus, Aristotle tends to view virtue as a relative state, making the analogy with food - for some, two pounds of meat might be too much food, but for others, it might be too little. The mean exists between the state of deficiency, too little, and excessiveness, too much.

Aristotle proposes many different examples of virtues and vices, together with their mean states. With regard to money, being stingy and being illiberal with generosity are the extremes, the one deficient and the other excessive. The mean state here would be liberality and generosity, a willingness to buy and to give, but not to extremes. Anger, too, is highlighted as having a deficient state (too much passivity), an excessive state (too much passion) and a mean state (a gentleness but firmness with regard to emotions).

Aristotle states that one of the difficulties with leading a virtuous life is that it takes a person of science to find the mean between the extremes (or, in some cases, Aristotle uses the image of a circle, the scientist finding the centre). Many of us, being imperfect humans, err on one side or the other, choosing in Aristotle's words, the lesser of two evils. Aristotle's wording here, that a scientist is the only one fully capable of virtue, has a different meaning for scientist - this is a pre-modern, pre-Enlightenment view; for Aristotle, the person of science is one who is capable of observation and calculation, and this can take many different forms.

Aristotle uses different kinds of argumentation in the Nicomachean Ethics. He uses a dialectical method, as well as a functional method. In the dialectical method, there are opposing ideas held in tension, whose interactions against each other yield a result - this is often how the mean between extremes is derived. However, there are other times that Aristotle seems to prefer a more direct, functional approach. Both of these methods lead to the same understanding for Aristotle's sense of the rational - that humanity's highest or final good is happiness.

There is a discussion of the human soul (for this is where virtue and happiness reside). Aristotle argues that virtue is not a natural state; we are not born with nor do we acquire through any natural processes virtue, but rather through 'habitation', an embedding process or enculturation that makes these a part of our soul. However, it is not sufficient for Aristotle's virtue that one merely function as a virtuous person or that virtuous things be done. This is not a skill, but rather an art, and to be virtuous, one must live virtuously and act virtuously with intention as well as form.

Of course, one of the implications here is that virtue is a quantifiable thing, that periodically resurfaces in later philosophies. How do we calculate virtue?

This is a difficult question, and not one that Aristotle answers in any definitive way. However, more important than this is the key difference that Aristotle displayed setting himself apart from his tutor Plato; rather than seeing the possession of 'the good' or 'virtue' as the highest ideal, Aristotle is concerned with the practical aspects, the ethics of this. Based on Aristotle's lectures in Athens in the fourth century BCE, this remains one of the most important works on ethical and moral philosophy in history.

Doing the right thing
Aristotle was a philosopher in search of the chief good for human beings. This chief good is eudaimonia, which is often translated as 'happiness' (but can also be translated as 'thriving' or 'flourishing'). Aristotle sees pleasure, honour and virtue as significant 'wants' for people, and then argues that virtue is the most important of these.

In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle makes the claim that happiness is something which is both precious and final. This seems to be so because it is a first principle or ultimate starting point. For, it is for the sake of happiness that we do everything else, and we regard the cause of all good things to be precious and divine. Moreover, since happiness is an activity of the soul in accordance with complete and perfect virtue, it is necessary to consider virtue, as this will be the best way of studying happiness.

How many of us today speak of happiness and virtue in the same breath? Aristotle's work in the Nicomachean Ethics is considered one of his greatest achievements, and by extension, one of the greatest pieces of philosophy from the ancient world. When the framers of the American Declaration of Independence were thinking of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, there is little doubt they had an acquaintance with Aristotle's work connecting happiness, virtue, and ethics together.

When one thinks of ethical ideas such as an avoidance of extremes, of taking the tolerant or middle ground, or of taking all things in moderation, one is tapping into Aristotle's ideas. It is in the Nicomachean Ethics that Aristotle proposes the Doctrine of the Mean - he states that virtue is a 'mean state', that is, it aims for the mean or middle ground. However, Aristotle is often misquoted and misinterpreted here, for he very quickly in the text disallows the idea of the mean to be applied in all cases. There are things, actions and emotions, that do not allow the mean state. Thus, Aristotle tends to view virtue as a relative state, making the analogy with food - for some, two pounds of meat might be too much food, but for others, it might be too little. The mean exists between the state of deficiency, too little, and excessiveness, too much.

Aristotle proposes many different examples of virtues and vices, together with their mean states. With regard to money, being stingy and being illiberal with generosity are the extremes, the one deficient and the other excessive. The mean state here would be liberality and generosity, a willingness to buy and to give, but not to extremes. Anger, too, is highlighted as having a deficient state (too much passivity), an excessive state (too much passion) and a mean state (a gentleness but firmness with regard to emotions).

Aristotle states that one of the difficulties with leading a virtuous life is that it takes a person of science to find the mean between the extremes (or, in some cases, Aristotle uses the image of a circle, the scientist finding the centre). Many of us, being imperfect humans, err on one side or the other, choosing in Aristotle's words, the lesser of two evils. Aristotle's wording here, that a scientist is the only one fully capable of virtue, has a different meaning for scientist - this is a pre-modern, pre-Enlightenment view; for Aristotle, the person of science is one who is capable of observation and calculation, and this can take many different forms.

Aristotle uses different kinds of argumentation in the Nicomachean Ethics. He uses a dialectical method, as well as a functional method. In the dialectical method, there are opposing ideas held in tension, whose interactions against each other yield a result - this is often how the mean between extremes is derived. However, there are other times that Aristotle seems to prefer a more direct, functional approach. Both of these methods lead to the same understanding for Aristotle's sense of the rational - that humanity's highest or final good is happiness.

There is a discussion of the human soul (for this is where virtue and happiness reside). Aristotle argues that virtue is not a natural state; we are not born with nor do we acquire through any natural processes virtue, but rather through 'habitation', an embedding process or enculturation that makes these a part of our soul. However, it is not sufficient for Aristotle's virtue that one merely function as a virtuous person or that virtuous things be done. This is not a skill, but rather an art, and to be virtuous, one must live virtuously and act virtuously with intention as well as form.

Of course, one of the implications here is that virtue is a quantifiable thing, that periodically resurfaces in later philosophies. How do we calculate virtue?

This is a difficult question, and not one that Aristotle answers in any definitive way. However, more important than this is the key difference that Aristotle displayed setting himself apart from his tutor Plato; rather than seeing the possession of 'the good' or 'virtue' as the highest ideal, Aristotle is concerned with the practical aspects, the ethics of this. Based on Aristotle's lectures in Athens in the fourth century BCE, this remains one of the most important works on ethical and moral philosophy in history.

Sachs' translation shines
Sachs makes this work come alive, and he deserves enormous credit.He manages to strike a delicate balance that is so rare in the world of translating.He has produced a dynamic, lively translation of an ancient text--without compromising the true meaning of the Greek.

Sachs' introduction and footnotes are indispensable.He explains the nuances of several key Greek words, though not in a way that might intimidate the novice.His introduction provides the reader with a stronger understanding of important terms and ideas that will be found in the text, and his footnotes are never intrusive but always welcome.It would be a mistake to take Sachs (or anyone else) as a sole authority on these matters, but his explanations of certain Greek terms are both concise and clear.Many translators of the 'Ethics' have sacrificed the original meaning of the Greek in the attempt to provide readers with something more contemporary-sounding.This is the brilliance of Sachs' translation--he presents the complexities of several Greek concepts without compromising their meaning and without leaving the reader floundering.His use of examples helps illuminate the text as well, especially in his footnotes.

The publication itself is also praiseworthy.It has ample margins and is pretty well bound.All in all, I would recommend Sachs' translation over all others (at least for now). ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description
Do you get upset easily, even about small things, or have trouble getting along with others? Do you feel down most of the time? Are you plagued by loneliness, grief, guilt, or a gnawing feeling of life's futility? Philosopher Elliot D. Cohen offers an uncommonly commonsense approach to these and many other problems and reveals how you can gain genuine insight into the confusions of everyday life by harnessing your own natural powers of reason and critical thinking. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

okay
i learned a lot about Aristotle, but didn't find the book as provocative as i'd hoped. Writing and thinking is decent but bland.

What Would Aristotle Do?
Elliot D. Cohen's personal insight on how to think and use reasoning in your everyday life is a useful tool to anyone. He shows us how to logically and rationally approach our inner struggles of life. He shows by changing the way one thinks and looks at life then one can successfully deal with their negative outlooks. He helps you tackle your behavioral and emotional problems through rules and reports (how you should think about things). He also shows that there are fallacies in reasoning, and he provides you antidotes to over come these fallacies.

This book is a fantastic guide to helping someone think in the approved manner. Cohen's logic and personal experiences gives you a ray of hope. He turns on a light and shows you that you do not have to live a life in the dark. You do not have to be a philosopher or psychologist to have good reasoning.

Short term therapy for long term results.
I am taking the liberty of quoting Dr. Albert Ellis. Albert Ellis wrote A Guide to Rational Living almost fifty years ago. Arguably one of the best self help books ever writen.

In "What Would Aristotle do", Mr. Cohen builds upon the brilliant revelations and keen insight of "Rational Living". Mr. Cohen adds to the science of self help with humor and simplicity. You can't go wrong with this one. I expect most everyone's life will be a little happier for taking the time to read a couple hundred pages.

Excellent REBT Therapy for Neurosis and Depression
The field of psychology is in disarray. What began in the late nineteenth-century as an exploration into the dynamics of the mind (i.e., psyche) and human behavior has been torn asunder by the variant "schools" of psycho-dynamics. After years of psychoanalysis, more people found "relief" in Wayne Dyer's "Your Erogenous Zones" than benefitted from twenty years of Freudian or Jungian psychoanalysis. With the advent of TCAs and SSRIs, even more people found relief in a little pill than in two centuries of talk therapy. What we know or don't know about psychiatry and psychology is more baffling now than ever will. For whatever it is worth, the human psyche is more evasive than tangible, and I'm not sure more damage than good has been done under its various mentors.

I have come to believe that three aspects of human behavior are unquestionable: (1) What we learned as children plays a more significant role in human dynamics than we'll ever know; (2) no matter what era one lives in, there's always a degree of alienation, anger, and angst; and (3) that certain chemical imbalances in the brain play an important, if not vital, role in how we adapt to life in general, and to change in particular. Treatment of neurosis and affective disorders usually requires that we adapt better than we have, and "traditional" psychoanalysis has been found seriously wanting. That having been said, I want to evaluate two books outside that domain and within the domain of "self help" that appear to be of enormous benefit. They are: (i) Albert Ellis' and Robert Harper's "A Guide to Rational Living, and (ii) Elliot Cohen's "What Would Aristotle Do?"

Both books are in the domain of Cognitive, or Rational-Emotive, Behavioral Therapy. The more I've studied the historical, intellectual, and hermeneutic influences from the Hellenistic Period, the more I am convinced that the cognitive "therapy of desire" and the cognitive "treatment of upheavals of thought" play a significant role in how we adapt to our daily lives than anything approaching Freud or Jung will ever do. Simply by changing our attitudes, reactions, and plights against our most basic emotions, the more we are adept at, and adapt to, leading more successful, healthy, and balanced lives. Both "A Guide to Rational Living" and "What Would Aristotle Do?" are in this latter venue. Both books are invaluable in teaching the reader how to overcome obstacles in one's life in a way that is both realistic and therapeutic.

The first misconception to get over is that the passions (i.e., emotions) are somehow separate and distinct from our ratiocinative faculties of the mind. Both cognitive and evolutionary psychology have demonstrated, without argument, that the two function occur within the same mental framework (cf., Daniel Goleman's "Emotional Intelligence," which locates all emotions in the amygdala). The second misconception to overcome is that emotions, qua emotions, are generally unhealthy, e.g., the Stoics. Take one example: The fright/flight response is an evolutionary response to fear that all of us animals, including human ones, have for self-preservation. This emotion, like many others, are key to our survival. As Martha Nussbaum argues cogently, even love and compassion are survival-oriented emotions (see her "Upheavals of Thought.").

Most debilitating emotions arise because we have not taught ourselves how to think/emote rationally. Both books argue and attempt to treat this. The difference between the two is that "A Guide to Rational Living" is less adept at how to change our rational control over our emotions, while "What Would Aristotle Do?" explicates the process in considerable detail. Either book is better than nothing, but clearly the later gives explicit directions on how to overcome irrational thinking. Aristotle (yes, him) distinguished between theoretical and practical reasoning over two millennia ago, and his assessment has not been devalued over time. In practical reasoning - the reasoning that determines how we act either ethically or emotionally, one begins with a universal premise, then supplying a particular premise, and then coming up with a conclusion or action. For example: "Do good, avoid evil" is a universal premise; than add the particular premise: "If I am good to John, he'll be good to me." In this case the universal premise is probably correct, but the particular premise is fallacious. Just because I love John does not mean he'll love me. When John fails to be good to you, the usual response is something like, "he hates me," "because he hates me, I am no good," "you idiot, I did my best, and you didn't reciprocate," etc. Sometimes, it's because of a faulty universal premise: "If I'm good, others should be good."In either case, both universal and particular premises are irrational. First, no one is wholly good, and secondly, even if one believes himself good, doesn't mean someone else is.

Both books illustrate the fallacies of such arguments. And, once one sees the fallacy of this kind of argument, the more one feels anger, frustration, and depression dissipate. I personally think, "What Would Aristotle Do?" brings out these fallacies more clearly, but both books touch on the same irrational beliefs that lead to the same irrational emotions. Whether it is the universal premise or the particular premise, or both, that cause our fallacies and lead us into emotional grief, it is, after all, our faulty thinking that leads us to disappointment, anger, frustration, depression, etc.. Learning how to detect and correct such premises is what both books are about. "What Would Aristotle Do?" tends to be more attractive to those who are more "rational" about their thinking process, whereas "A Guide to Rational Living" tends to more attractive to those who are more emotive. Both books will get you to the desired end. And either book will "get you there" for less than one-fifth the price of a single psychoanalysis. And, for those seriously depressed, another book worth considering is "Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy," which also uses CBT to alleviate much distress. I wasn't impressed with it as I was the other two. But whatever you do, invest in at least one of these books; unhealthy emotions and depression are not necessary, as each shows.

How to Think, Not What to Think
Cohen's "What Would Aristotle Do?" is an important and welcome contribution not just to the fields of talk therapy in general and philosophical counseling in particular, but also to the long forgotten field of common sense and for this very simple reason: he teaches you how to think and not what to think. For over 2000 years people have been taught, to the demise of independent thought, what to think and not how to think. To quote a master on the subject, Paul Thyry, Baron D'Holbach, wrote in the preface to his book "Le Bons Sens" that

"When we examine the opinions of men, we find that nothing is more uncommon, than common sense; or, in other words, they lack judgment to discover plain truths, or to reject absurdities, and palpable contradictions."

Cohen's book offers people not only the conceptual tools they need but the conceptual tooks they must have to extricate themselves from the "lives of quiet despiration" they lead to the life they would lead if they only knew how. He does this, as only a philosopher can, by first distinguishing "thinking about things" from "thinking about one's own thinking." He then goes on to offer examples of how thinking about one's own thinking can lead a person from faulty and/or gratuitous assumptions to sound reasoning about the true nature of the problems people face. He identifies common fallacies in reasoning, demonstrates their fallaciousness, and illuminates, using his own logic-based REBT (Rational Emotion Behavior Therapy), how to think correctly.

Unlike most books on talk therapy, as Thoreau said about newspapers, Cohen's book offers more than a change of names and dates; the content, as well as the approach, is decidedly and refreshingly different. For those people who have not yet learned how to think -- and if you do not understand what the phrase "how to think" means -- then this book will teach you how to think about the life you would lead if you only could.

Kenneth Cust RPN, Ph.D.
Central Missouri State University ... Read more

Book Description
Includes the complete Posterior Analytics, De Anima, Nichomachean, Ethics, and Poetics with selections from Physics, Metaphysics, and Politics ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A useful and comprehensive introduction.
It's been said somewhere, don't remember by whom, that all of western philosophy is a series of footnotes to Plato and Aristotle. This may be a bit of an exaggeration, but the fact remains that these two seminal figures of western thought have left at least an indirect mark on all of the subsequent thinkers. And yet, it's been my experience that Plato ismuch more widely read and studied, in college courses and otherwise, than his equally famous erstwhile disciple. This probably has to do a lot with the style: Plato's "Socratic dialogs" have been written in a form that makes them instantly accessible to readers of all ages, and tends to belie the complexities and subtleties of the underlying ideas. Aristotle's style is much more pedantic and scholarly. One could easily see his writings appearing in peer-reviewed journals.

In part due to the above considerations, it took me a while to finally pick up a book of Aristotle's writings and try to go through at least some of them. This volume brings a few of his works in their entirety, but for most part only more important excerpts are given. Reading it requires some effort on the part of the reader, especially if you are not used to the style and substance of ancient Greek thought. However, the effort was worthwhile, and I've come away from reading this work with renewed and deepened appreciation for Aristotle. In terms of the sheer breadth of his inquiry, there has not been anyone quite like him before or since. ... Read more

Book Description
This annotated collection of the influential philosopher's most famous works includes: Metaphysics, Logic, Physics, Psychology, Ethics, Politics, and Poetics. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Perfect one-volume selection of "The Philsopher."
Two things make this book great: its selection and its translation.

For a pocket size selection of Aristotle, this book is tops.It has sections from all of his major works, so it is useful for survey classes, or personal study.Of fundamental import is Metaphysics, which is the meta-basis for his thought.Also included are selections from his more popular Ethics and Politics, and lesser known Poetics.

What drew me to this book was the translation.Most translations are really crude transliterations. Yes, it is important to be as faithful to the text as humanly possible.But the "ivory tower academeese" sucks the life out of vibrant philosophies.

Creed and Wardmen avoid this problem entirely. This text was readable, and therefore enjoyable.It reminds me of the smooth prose of J. B Phillips or Edgar J. Goodspeed.It was like talking to a good friends, rather than a Latinized statue.

For a more comprehensive selection, I would recommend "Basic Works of Aristotle" (ISBN: 0375757996), or getting the books individually.

I love the cover! ... Read more

Book Description
The first complete translation into modern English of Aquinas'unfinished commentary on Aristotle's Politics, this translationfollows the definitive Leonine text of Aquinas and moreover reproduces inEnglish those passages of William of Moerbeke's famously accurate yetelliptical translation of the Politics from which Aquinas worked. Bekker numbers have been added to passages from Moerbeke's translation foreasy reference. ... Read more

Book Description
Written by renowned Aristotle scholar Sir David Ross, this study has long been established as one of the foremost surveys of Aristotle's life, work and philosophy.
With John L. Ackrill's introduction and updated bibliography, created for the sixth edition, the book continues to serve as a standard guide, both for the student of ancient history and the general reader. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Aclassic review of Aristotle
Unfortunately I can not be extremely positive about this work of Ross. Still how you will benefit from the work will depend on your expectations.If you need some summary to draw upon in an undergraduate course, this work will be helpful.But the work will not give you real insight, either because it does not intend it, or simply because it can not achieve it.Sorry that I have to talk like this on a great scholar's book.

Aristotle unraveled
Sir David Ross' explication of Aristotle's philosophy is most helpful. Aristotle's works that have survived to today seem to be post-lecture notes, a sort of "here's what I covered in today's lecture"recap. As such, Aristotle's books are sometimes confusing, occasionallycontradictory and often just plain difficult to understand. In addition,Aristotle was a scientist first and philosopher second. This makes hisworks, which we read for their philosophical content, more difficult tograsp in some cases. Further, as with any translated works, varioustranslators convey Aristotle's assertions in different ways, some of themmore useful than others.

Ross' deep understanding of The Philosopher,gained through years of study, teaching and translation, gives him thebackground needed to help the reader understand more clearly Aristotle'sposition on various subjects. Ross is able to reconcile some apparentcontradictions, to point out some of Aristotle's underlying assumptions andmake confusing passages clear.

As a graduate student in philosophy, Ifind Ross' work to be very helpful and expect to use it extensively asbackground material for my thesis. But the value derived from reading andunderstanding Aristotle is not limited to students or philosophers, and thevalue of Ross' book is wide-ranging as well. Aristotlewill be helpful tostudents, teachers or lay readers interested in philosophy but strugglingwith some of the archaic attitudes presented in many translations of ThePhilosopher's work. ... Read more

Book Description

This book begins by addressing properties of light as seen in the everyday world: events such as refraction in a pool, lenses in the form of glasses, the colors of objects, atmospheric events, etc. Latter chapters would explain these events at the atomic and subatomic level and address the use of electron and optical microscopy in observing the worlds unseen by the unaided eye. The book is an elegant, and aesthetically pleasing volume that is intended for science students, and will be enjoyed by those with a background in optics. Exercises and activities will be found in an appendix, but the primary volume can stand alone if the reader so desires. There are several well-written and extensive volumes in the "physics of light and color" market; however, Patterns of Light will fill a niche by providing an overview of the entire electromagnetic spectrum, rather than simply focusing on visible light.

Book Description
Professionals and business people in midlife are increasingly asking themselves 'what's next?' in their careers and personal lives. This book draws on the wisdom of the ages to help contemporary men and women plan for satisfying, useful, moral, and meaningful second halves of their lives. For centuries, the brightest people in Western societies have looked to Aristotle for guidance on how to lead a good life and how to create a good society. Now James O'Toole-the Mortimer J. Adler Senior Fellow of the Aspen Institute-translates that classical philosophical framework into practical, comprehensible terms to help professionals and business people apply it to their own lives and work. His book helps thoughtful readers address some of the profound questions they are currently struggling with in planning their futures: ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

It doesen't worth it...
This is a book where the author tells about his own expirience on self therapy in order to accept the fact that he isn't as good as he would like to be in his professional area (despite he thinks he is teaching how to run a good life - i.e. finding hapiness despite you don't have the recognition that you would like in your professional area). Perhaps it can be helpful for someone who doesen't have a grate consciousness about him/herself and/or face the same problem of the author.

Strong start, disappointing finish
This book starts out with a strong review of Aristotle's ethics the application of these ethics to life in the 21st century.The writing is clear and easy to follow, even if you have no background in philosophy.

The second half of the book is weak.The book profiles people that the author believes have clearly failed or succeeded at finding happiness as Aristotle would define it.Unfortunately, almost all of the examples cited are wealthy, white men in their 50s, 60s and 70s.The book would have been much stronger if the author had profiled a broader range of people.

Different Recast on Aristotle's and Adler's work
The book is a recast of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics which was summarized ih Mortimer Adler's Time of Our Lives. What James O'Toole does well is to weave his personal story and struggles with these issues in a language and context of today.I found this personal view refreshing and move Aristotle's theory to a very practical level. The book is clearly aimed at baby boomers, like himself, who are struggling with meaning and unfulfilled career aspirations.Personally, O'Toole's writing got me to think more about the question of whether all vices are "fun and exciting" and all virtue is "boring".The book is easy to ready and allows one to access easily Aristotle's important writings.I recommend it for anyone struggling with these issues.

P.B.
Boston, MA

A contemporary as well as classical guide to happiness....
Perhaps you're now asking the same question I once did: "Given the fact that he lived almost 2,400 years ago, what could Aristotle possibly have to say that is directly relevant to me?" In fact, a great deal. So many of us today -- especially those at mid-life -- are engaged in a search to find meaning and happiness. We often ask, as Peggy Lee once did, "Is that all there is?" The purpose of this book is show how Aristotle is an effective guide on that search, and how he can help each of us find our own practical answer to a critically important question, "What's next?"

In an interview to appear in the July/August (2005) issue of Chamber Executive magazine, O'Toole observes that "Aristotle was the most practical of all great philosophers. His audience was the business and political leadership of his day. He offered them wisdom they could apply in their own lives -- practical advice on matters ranging from ethical business practices to effective philanthropy. Aristotle even describes 'virtuous non-retirement' -- the lifelong commitment to engage in leisure work which is characterized by pursuit of the 'highest good' of individual excellence and the 'complete good' of community service. He offers practical tests to help us determine how much wealth we need to support us while we engage in those activities."

O'Toole goes on to say, "So my challenge was not making Aristotle relevant to today's successful professionals and managers; instead, I faced the nearly impossible task of making his difficult language clear to modern readers [begin italics] without dumbing it down [end italics]. I had to find a way to explore the depth and complexity of Aristotle in a way that makes sense in an age of sound bites and blogs. After all, who ever heard of a [begin italics] serious [end italics] self-help book?But that's what I set out to write."

As O'Toole explains in this book, Aristotle struggled with many of the same difficult circumstances (more than two centuries ago) which most of us face in 2005: "...in his career as a teacher and a consultant to leaders of ancient Athens, Aristotle thought long and hard about what it means to live a good life and how much it takes to finance it. His thoughts on this matter are particularly applicable today, given the baby boom generation's anxiety over insufficient retirement savings and shaky investments: Aristotle shows how we can find happiness at almost any level of income. Moreover, he argues that the ability to find true contentment correlates only tangentially with the amount of money one has cached away. Unlike so many of today's `life advisors,' Aristotle integrates financial planning with the broader task of life planning."

Throughout human history, there has been a constant challenge to get lifestyle and quality of life in appropriate balance. As O'Toole notes, "Aristotelian ethics concern moral decisions related to how we should allocate the limited time of our lives. We must each plan how we will allocate our energies among such activities as earning, learning, playing, being with friends and family, and participating in the community. As we make these choices, Aristotle warns, we will fail to achieve 'the chief good' -- that is, we will fail to be happy -- if we pursue the wrong ends."

If the pursuit of philosophy is to serve as a practical guide to action, and I believe it is, then the wisdom which Aristotle gained from his own experiences will guide and inform our own pursuit and achievement of "the chief good": personal happiness. In the Foreword to one of O'Toole's previously published books, The Executive's Compass, Lodwrick M. Cook (former chairman and CEO of Atlantic Richfield Company) explains O'Toole's use of the central metaphor: "The beauty of the compass is that it provides a framework for the executive to create order out of the growing chaos of cultural diversity and conflict of values. Like a real compass, [O'Toole's 'value compass'] helps us to find where we are, where others are, where we want to go, and how to get there. Like the Aspen experience itself, O'Toole's compass is aimed at developing executive judgment by expanding our understanding of the interrelationships of fundamental values."

Cook's comments are also relevant to Creating the Good Life. For those now struggling to define and then create the good life for themselves, whatever their current circumstances may be, Aristotle's wisdom can indeed serve as a "compass." In this volume, O'Toole prepares his reader to use it effectively. ... Read more

Book Description

Aristotle, great Greek philosopher, researcher, reasoner, and writer, born at Stagirus in 384 BCE, was the son of Nicomachus, a physician, and Phaestis. He studied under Plato at Athens and taught there (367-347); subsequently he spent three years at the court of a former pupil, Hermeias, in Asia Minor and at this time married Pythias, one of Hermeias's relations. After some time at Mitylene, in 343-2 he was appointed by King Philip of Macedon to be tutor of his teen-aged son Alexander. After Philip's death in 336, Aristotle became head of his own school (of 'Peripatetics'), the Lyceum at Athens. Because of anti-Macedonian feeling there after Alexander's death in 323, he withdrew to Chalcis in Euboea, where he died in 322.

Nearly all the works Aristotle prepared for publication are lost; the priceless ones extant are lecture-materials, notes, and memoranda (some are spurious). They can be categorized as follows: I Practical: Nicomachean Ethics; Great Ethics (Magna Moralia); Eudemian Ethics; Politics; Economics (on the good of the family); On Virtues and Vices. II Logical: Categories; Analytics (Prior and Posterior); Interpretation; Refutations used by Sophists; Topica. III Physical: Twenty-six works (some suspect) including astronomy, generation and destruction, the senses, memory, sleep, dreams, life, facts about animals, etc. IV Metaphysics: on being as being. V Art: Rhetoric and Poetics. VI Other works including the Constitution of Athens; more works also of doubtful authorship. VII Fragments of various works such as dialogues on philosophy and literature; and of treatises on rhetoric, politics and metaphysics.

The Loeb Classical Library edition of Aristotle is in twenty-three volumes.

Customer Reviews (1)

Useful for the specialist and the student
Like most volumes in the Loeb series, the emphasis is not on word-for-word precision in the translation, but on acheiving greater readability in broader terms. Since the original text in ancient Greek is provided on the facing page, the editors assume that anyone with a little knowledge of Greek can supplement the looseness of the translation by referring to the original. And in general, the compromises made in this way are good ones throughout the series. Tredennick's translation may be a little too loose, and also given over to some unfortunate jargon that can distort Aristotle's meaning. But even so, this is still a very useful text for the specialist or the student. ... Read more

Book Description

The monumental importance of Aristotle's philosophy on Western thought cannot be overstated.It has overshadowed the entire field of philosophical and political thought for well over two millennia. Along with Socrates and Plato, Aristotle is considered to be among the foremost philosophers of all time.His philosophical views have cast a long shadow and continue to be required reading for students at most intuitions of higher learning throughout the world.

The Ethics of Aristotle is one half of a single treatise of which his Politics is the other half. Both deal with one and the same subject. This subject is what Aristotle calls in one place the "philosophy of human affairs;" but more frequently Political or Social Science. In the two works taken together we have their author's whole theory of human conduct or practical activity, that is, of all human activity, which is not directed merely to knowledge or truth. The two parts of this treatise are mutually complementary, but in a literary sense each is independent and self-contained.

In these two major works, Aristotle assumes the characteristic Platonic view that all men seek the good, and go wrong through ignorance, not through evil will.The end of all action, individual or collective, is the greatest happiness of the greatest number. There is, Aristotle insists, no difference of kind between the good of one and the good of many or all.He naturally regards the state as a community that exists for the sake of the good life. It is in the state that that common seeking after the good, which is the profoundest truth about men and nature, becomes explicit and knows itself. Hence for Aristotle as for Plato, the natural state or the state as such is the ideal state, and the ideal state is the starting-point of political inquiry. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Great Book!

Aristotle -Ethics and Politics is a great book. It is considered to be a classic for good reasons:it is a good read, it deals with really important matters, it is superb literature and it is a landmark in the history of civilization.

For about two thousand years, it has been on the reading list of most educated people in the Western Hemisphere.Undoubtedly, it will still be part of the curriculum at most of the world's colleges and universities two thousand years from now.You just can't consider yourself to have received a proper education without having read this great Greek classic.

While you are at it, you should also read:
Homer - The Iliad and The Odyssey
History of the Peloponnesian War
and
Anabasis: The March Up Country

Classics like these are not stuffy, pompous, overblown literature as some ignorant anti-intellectuals might think.They are genuine looks at life by excellent writers who had something important to say - and said it well.

First and Finest Example of Political Logic

Aristotle was not right about everything - but his immense intellect touched just about everything - and established the point of departure for earnest discussion into the affairs of mankind.He has often been considered to be a god, or nearly so, much to the detriment of his stated aim - to arrive at the view closest to that elusive quantity Truth.

So great is his reputation that when you read Aristotle, try as you might, it is nearly impossible to read him with an open mind, but that is what is required in order to see his philosophy for what it really is and not for what you have been told that it is. Do you have what it takes?

Good Book - Two for the Price of One

Aristotle was not a God, but for centuries his writings were taken as gospel.He left a legacy that has left an indelible impression on the intellectual history of this planet.His support for the intuition of slavery has been consistently overlooked by the supporters of the other elements of his political philosophy.The founding fathers of the United States were right at home with Aristotle's views.

Unless one has read and contemplated the important works of Aristotle (the two most important are combined in this volume), it is not reasonable to expect them to really grasp the political roots of Western Civilization and how the offshoots have evolved.In reading these works, with some knowledge of the intervening history, Aristotle's errors of judgment become apparent.

The flaws notwithstanding, "Ethics" and "The Politics" are essential to a decent education.If nothing else, understanding where some of the inconsistencies in our society came from can help provide better solutions to the problems.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

not useful - get fuller volume
Irwin's and Fine's translations merit a five-star rating. They are expert scholars who have for decades been at the forefront of Aristotle research. Besides 100% technical accuracy they helpfully subscript (i) Aristotle's keyterms which can't be uniformly translated and (ii) those keyterms which have only one English equivalent ('form', 'being', 'knowledge', etc).

However, I warn customers NOT to get this book (I made the mistake) but instead get Fine and Irwin's "Aristotle: Selections" (Hackett 1995) from which the "Introductory Readings" are excerpted. You'll need their full glossary and the more extensive notes if you want to understand Aritotle AT ALL. In that regard Introductory Readings is useless and that's why it merits a one-star.

Two coments in closing.
1) Every translation of Aristotle is an interpretation, and Irwin's and Fine's even more so than others due to its high frequency of interpolations. It's therefore indispensable to have another reader - say, Ackrill's (Princeton 1987) - beside you to compare what's going on.
2) "Selections" contains Irwin