J. O. Urmson (1915–2012)

It might be due to me being burnt out on my Platonist studies, but I have to admit to not finding this book all that enthralling. Not that there weren't portions that were interesting, but it just didn't hold my attention that well. There are some interesting instances of idealist philosophy in here, but Aristotle is pedantic as is, so the interpretations had a tendency to only amplify that tendency in Aristotle. It's disappointing because Aristotle's "On the Soul" was probably my favorite show more of his works; I just don't think that the commentator added much to it. You do have some standard Neo-Platonist points, but not very much that I wasn't already familiar with.

I should note that there is debate on whether the commentator was even Simplicius. That question doesn't interest me all that much. The commentator was certainly a Neo-Platonist and that is as much as can be said. If someone is interested in how the later Neo-Platonists interpreted Aristotle on this topic, they might find this commentary worth while. I plan on reading the other volumes to this commentary, but I have no idea when that will be. show less

Urmson sees Berkeley's idealism as critical of the metaphysics underlying Newtonian physics and comes at the insights of Berkeley in very interesting and IMO worthwhile and useful ways.

A formative classic in thinking like moderns about emotivism and the affective grasp on real world situations.

The paper edition of Jonathan Ree's 1989 editorial updating of J.O. Urmson's classic reference of 1960. Ree supervised the revision and updating of the original articles as well as the addition of 80 articles by 31 new authors.