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Common Knowledge

Canonical name: Aristotle
Legal name: Aristoteles
Other names: Stagiriet, de
Birthdate: 384 BCE
Date of death: 322 BCE
Gender: male
Education: Plato's Academy
Occupations: teacher
philosopher
ethicist
Organizations: Lyceum
Royal Academy at Macedon
Relationships: Plato (teacher)
Alexander the Great (student)
Ptolemy I Soter I (student)
Cassander (student)
Herpyllis (wife)
Nicomachus (son)
Nationality: Macedonia
Birthplace: Stagira, Macedonia
Places of residence: Athens, Greece
Place of death: Chalcis, Euboea, Greece
Map Location: Greece

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477 reviews

henrique_iwao 759 reviews

Physics by Aristotle

O primeiro livro do filósofo mais influente de todos os tempos que me convence em termos de estilo. As enumerações e categorizações, junto a refutações de argumentos concorrentes, com pequenas citações, se harmonizam numa prosa seca, árdua, mas bela. De resto, a natureza é entendida a partir do movimento e a filosofia natural explora principalmente o movimento. Para tal, introduz ideias de mudança e causalidade - as famosas 4 causas junto à ideia de sinonímia causal, em que a show more forma do agente já possui o análogo do efeito a ser causado no agido (embora com exceções, a locomoção etc); o vocabulário da potencialidade e da atualidade, da passagem de um ao outro; os locomotores primários de um universo eterno, garantindo o movimento nas esferas e assim no resto da existência. Discussões sobre o infinito e o infinitesimal são bem interessantes e uma resolução por dissipassão dos paradoxos de Zenão. show less

Aug 30, 20228 other reviews

ezratillman 163 reviews

Politics (Dover Thrift Editions: Philosophy) by Aristotle

The beginning of Politics is abominable (not unlike the Snowman), but it gets better, eventually, sort of.

The Absolute Garbage Part:

The beginning talks about how some people are naturally born to be slaves, while others are natural born masters. Of course, only men can be masters. All women are naturally meant to be subservient. That is terrible garbage of course, but one might contend that he is merely giving the unquestioned opinion of his time, BUT that AIN’T THE CASE! Ol’ Aristotle show more (“Ari” to his friends) talks about different opinions about whether men are equal or not. So Aristotle (“Stotle” to his enemies) was aware of conflicting opinions and still chose the worse view upon careful reflection.

And since Aristotle became THE AUTHORITY for people in western Europe, and later America, until the last hundred or so years, his arguments for slavery and the inequality of women have had horrifying impacts.

The Good Stuff:

That being said, Aristotle systematically lays out the many different ways governments and societies can work and the potential pros and cons of each. Looking at how much say most citizens in ancient Greece had in their governments than citizens have today made me question why that is. Because I am living in the present, I assume that how things are is the obvious and correct way for things to be.

Now, in ancient Greece, the number of citizens was very small, and were supported by slaves, women, and foreigners who had no say in government. But learning about these ancient governments gave me perspective on our governments today, and makes me think that our much expanded citizenry in modern times should have at least as much of a role in our governments as the citizens in ancient Greece had in theirs.

If you look at what Aristotle said about citizens (and discount anything he said about slaves or women) and then apply that to all people, often he has a lot of good things to say. He argued that citizens (both rich and poor) should work for the good of all, rather than looking out for themselves, and lots of other stuff.

In Conclusion:

The length of this review is unconscionable, its quality unforgivable, and I believe that I should be banished as punishment like the Athenians used to do to anyone who got too uppity. show less

Apr 18, 202547 other reviews

nwcasebolt78 272 reviews

The Complete Works of Aristotle: The Revised Oxford Translation, Vol. 2 (Bollingen Series LXXI-2) by Aristotle

Aristotle, if transported to our time, would find our world an alien enigma. To ease his discomfort, I would take him to the Olympic Games. He should know that one thing hasn’t changed: we still crown champions not for being fine people, but for competing and winning.

I know he’d like this, because this was how he illustrated his point that virtue is goodness in action: “And as in the Olympic Games it is not the most beautiful and the strongest that are crowned but those who show more compete…so those who act rightly win the noble and good things in life.”

This second and final volume of Aristotle’s complete works is largely devoted to his writings on goodness in action, whether in the transactions of daily life or the rough-and-tumble of politics. His treatises on rhetoric and poetics, fascinating though they are in their own rights, still orbit this central question insofar as they involve the act of influencing others through communication toward virtue.

I acknowledge, of course, that Aristotle’s ideas of what virtue looks like are often different from mine. For instance, I don’t consider a woman a stunted, underdeveloped, inferior version of a man. I’m not comfortable labeling entire ethnicities as fitted by nature for slavery and, thus, for conquest.

Some of Aristotle, viewed from a distance of 2300 years, seems harsh and regressive. What we may fail to notice is that this is because Aristotle sought to bring ethics and all its children under the government of scientific reason. As a man of ancient Greece, he could only reason from the assumptions and experiences of a time and place far removed from our own.

This is more revolutionary than it may seem. Though his Metaphysics is esoteric and hard to follow, it marks an epoch in world history. By dismantling both Pythagorean mysticism and Platonic supranaturalism, Aristotle freed thought from prior constraint by Theories of Everything and their elite enforcers.

This is well illustrated by his remarkably tolerant review of the governments of various Mediterranean city-states in his Politics. Though a fairly chauvinistic Greek, his principle of seeking the good through observation and reason compelled him to seek the good even beyond his own prejudices.

It’s this very freedom, this fearlessness to reevaluate conclusions on the basis of evidence, that laid the foundations for our modern world. Though Aristotle generally disfavored democracy as prone to collapse into mob rule, he democratized ethics, morality, and politics by subjecting these to no greater authority than human reason.

This is why I think he would enjoy the modern Olympics. Once he recovered from his shock at the participation of females, he might recognize we got here partly through his own method of drawing fresh conclusions from fresh evidence. Aristotle set a trajectory that is still arcing. He would no doubt be gratified to know that despite setbacks and missteps, we haven’t given up his quest for the good. show less

May 23, 20261 other review

nwcasebolt78 272 reviews

A New Aristotle Reader by Aristotle

Only old geezers like me remember Reader’s Digest Condensed Books. You youngsters can pull up a chair and let me tell you about these, which contained anywhere from three to six books abridged and squished into one hardback volume. I liked them as a free-spirited child. Now, as a neurotic adult, I shudder at the thought of reading a book without actually reading the whole book.

And yet, here I find myself again, catapulted back to my childhood and reading a condensed version of show more Aristotle’s works. I comfort myself with the knowledge that I spent huge chunks of 2023 and 2024 reading the complete works, and hasten to reassure one and all that I didn’t use this book to cheat.

Not that there’s anything wrong with cheating on Aristotle. His complete works are a beast, and modern collections include essays authored by the equivalent of ancient AI writing philosophy “in the style of” the master. They’re useful for understanding his influence, but these spurious works aren’t necessary if all you want is the genuine article.

For that, this one-volume distillation of the essential Aristotle is just what the doctor (of philosophy?) ordered. Of course, the editor’s introduction is swimming in caveats. Deep cuts had to be made, from paragraphs to chapters to books. Plus, what we have of Aristotle’s works are often draft copies or outline notes for lectures, and thus are already elliptical or truncated even before modern editors sharpen their knives.

All of that being said, this is an excellent boiled-down version of the thinker whose thoughts still shape our world. My journey through the complete works is fresh enough that I could vibe-check this reader against them, and the vibes are good. I feel that J. L. Ackrill’s editorial decisions produced a book much more accessible to those who aren’t willing to invest in 3000 pages of Greek philosophy.

That isn’t to say this is easy reading. There’s no way to make Aristotle easy without dumbing him down into something he wasn’t. But if you want a quick hit of the Nicomachean Ethics or Politics or (God forbid) Metaphysics, this is a much less steep climb for a view that’s still worth the hike. show less

May 23, 2026

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