Aristotle: Introductory Readings
Product ID: 221954754
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Drawn from the translations and editorial aids of Irwin and Fine's Aristotle, Selections (Hackett Publishing Co., 1995), this anthology will be most useful to instructors who must try to do justice to Aristotle in a semester-long ancient-philosophy survey, but it will also be appropriate for a variety of introductory-level courses. Introductory Readings provides accurate, readable, and integrated translations that allow the reader to follow Aristotle's use of crucial technical terms and to grasp the details of his argument. Included are adaptations of the glossary and notes that helped make its parent volume a singularly useful aid to the study of Aristotle. Review: Where It All Begins - These Introductory Readings run to 350 pages, compared with the standard two-volume edition of 2500 pages, and the companion Selected Readings running to 650 pages. Most of the biological writings are excluded, as are the Prior Analytics (dealing with syllogisms) and many extracts consist of just a few paragraphs. By contrast, the Metaphysics, the Nichomachean Ethics and the Politics take up about two thirds of the book. The English is rough, but the editors explain that this is because their aim is to get as close as possible to what Aristotle actually wrote. The volume includes a glossary of key terms, which are capitalised whenever they appear in the main text, and references are given to their appearance elsewhere in the corpus. Most importantly, such terms appear in the main text with a subscript to distinguish those English words -for example “substance” - for which Aristotle has one or more different words to denote different concepts.It is a cliché that all philosophy is footnotes to Plato. I don’t think this is actually right. It all begins with Aristotle. Somewhere – I think in the introduction to the Selfish Gene – Richard Dawkins says we don’t need to bother reading anything written before the 1850’s, because it would have been written in ignorance of Darwin. Well, he may like to start by pondering the passage in the Physics where Aristotle raises the question of whether the configuration of a meat-eating animal’s teeth came about by chance, and whether it just so happened that this made that animal suitable for survival. The point is raised in the context of a discussion on chance, randomness, and concomitant and supervenient causes which is of direct relevance to the current debate among evolutionary biologists over the question of free-riders and spandrels. His appetite whetted, maybe Dawkins could go on to read the rest of this book. Review: Nice Item - I am totally satisfied with the seller. The item arrived on time and came as described. I will definitely order from this seller again- very satisfied customer.
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S**3
Where It All Begins
These Introductory Readings run to 350 pages, compared with the standard two-volume edition of 2500 pages, and the companion Selected Readings running to 650 pages. Most of the biological writings are excluded, as are the Prior Analytics (dealing with syllogisms) and many extracts consist of just a few paragraphs. By contrast, the Metaphysics, the Nichomachean Ethics and the Politics take up about two thirds of the book. The English is rough, but the editors explain that this is because their aim is to get as close as possible to what Aristotle actually wrote. The volume includes a glossary of key terms, which are capitalised whenever they appear in the main text, and references are given to their appearance elsewhere in the corpus. Most importantly, such terms appear in the main text with a subscript to distinguish those English words -for example “substance” - for which Aristotle has one or more different words to denote different concepts.It is a cliché that all philosophy is footnotes to Plato. I don’t think this is actually right. It all begins with Aristotle. Somewhere – I think in the introduction to the Selfish Gene – Richard Dawkins says we don’t need to bother reading anything written before the 1850’s, because it would have been written in ignorance of Darwin. Well, he may like to start by pondering the passage in the Physics where Aristotle raises the question of whether the configuration of a meat-eating animal’s teeth came about by chance, and whether it just so happened that this made that animal suitable for survival. The point is raised in the context of a discussion on chance, randomness, and concomitant and supervenient causes which is of direct relevance to the current debate among evolutionary biologists over the question of free-riders and spandrels. His appetite whetted, maybe Dawkins could go on to read the rest of this book.
R**B
Nice Item
I am totally satisfied with the seller. The item arrived on time and came as described. I will definitely order from this seller again- very satisfied customer.
J**Z
Just as described.
This book was in great condition for my ethics course. All of the pages were intact and full of excellent insight.
J**P
Perfect for the budding scholar
I purchased this book to help me along in my third year of an honours degree in Philosophy. I highly recommend it to students of all levels as either the perfect introductory text or a handy resoursce for reference or additional insight. This is a fine collection of introductory texts to one of the great early philosophers. The author's comments and insight are particularly useful also. No serious student of philosophy should pass up giving this a read.
J**N
Excellent
Excellent book needed it for a class and when it arrived came in perfect condition.
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