Commentary

[in chronological order]

Aristotle’s Teaching in the “Politics” by Thomas Pangle

- Pangle, Thomas. Aristotle’s Teaching in the “Politics.” Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013.
In this work, Thomas Pangle offers a detailed, brilliant interpretation of Aristotle’s Politics, that argues, among other things, that “Aristotle’s public theorizing about political practice is a highly self-conscious form of political… More

One and Many in Aristotle’s Metaphysics

- Halper, Edward,  One and Many in Aristotle’s Metaphysics, Alpha - Delta, Parmenides Press, 2009.
From the publisher: Edward Halper’s three-volume One and Many in Aristotle’s ‘Metaphysics’ contends that Aristotle argues for his central metaphysical doctrines by showing that they alone resolve various versions of what is known as “the… More

Aristotle’s ‘Politics’: A Reader’s Guide

- Swanson, J. Aristotle’s ‘Politics’: A Reader’s Guide. Continuum Press, 2009
Excerpt: ” Related to the subject of Aristotle on natural justice and nature generally, is the disputed unity of his corpus. Aristotle wrote a number of works on a number of subjects and maintains that different degrees of precision are obtainable about… More

Aristotle’s “Nicomachean Ethics” Book VII

- Natali, Carlo. Aristotle’s “Nicomachean Ethics” Book VII. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
Excerpt: ” Book VII  appears to be the sum of two different logoi,  the first dedicated to weakness of the will and other on desirable states of mind, and the second to pleasure. Each logos  has the aspect of an independent short treatise, with its… More

Aristotle’s Dialogue with Socrates in the “Nicomachean Ethics”

- Burger, Ronna, Aristotle's Dialogue with Socrates: On the "Nicomachean Ethics," Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009.    
Ronna Burger of Tulane University considers Aristotle’s Ethics not as a conventional treatise but as a dialogue with the Platonic Socrates. Excerpts from Reviews: “This is a work of distinction that will be indispensable for all serious students of… More

Aristotle, Politics, Book I: A Reconsideration

- Winthrop, Delba. "Aristotle, Politics, Book I: A reconsideration." Perspectives on Political Science 37.4 (Fall 2008).
Modern science, particularly Thomas Hobbes, begins with a broad attack on Aristotle intended to replace “Aristotelity” in the universities. This attack, however, was superficial and never properly reconsidered when Hobbes and his cohort were in… More

Aristotle and the Rediscovery of Citizenship by Susan Collins

- Collins, Susan. Aristotle and the Rediscovery of Citizenship. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
Excerpt: The Aristotelian tradition became almost moribund with the success of modern liberalism and of attacks such as those of Hobbes on the many ‘absurdities’ of the ‘old Morall Philosophers,’ Aristotle chief among them. Yet today… More

Aristotle on Memory

- Richard Sorabji, Aristotle on Memory. University of Chicago Press, Chicago IL, 2006.
From the publisher: Richard Sorabji, a noted philosopher in his own right, here offers a new edition of his 1972 translation of De Memoria here with commentary, summaries, and three essays comparing Aristotle’s accounts of memory and recollection. For… More

Happy Lives and the Highest Good: An Essay on Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics

- Lear, Gabriel. Happy Lives and the Highest Good: An Essay on Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. Princeton: Princeton U. Press, 2004.
Excerpt: “Aristotle invites us to conceive of the human good as a special kind of end.  In the very first line of the Nicomachean Ethics he says “Every  craft and every inquiry, and likewise every action and every choice, seem to aim at some… More
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Major Works

The Physics

- Aristotle’s Physics: A Guided Study by Joe Sachs Rutgers Press, New Brunswick: 1995
From the publisher: Aristotle’s Physics is the only complete and coherent  book we have from the ancient world in which a thinker of the first rank seeks to say something about nature as a whole. For centuries, Aristotle’s inquiry into the causes and… More

De Anima

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Aristotle. De Anima: On the Soul and On Memory and Recollection. Translated by Joe Sachs. Santa Fe, NM: Green Lion Press, 2001.
From Joe Sachs’s introduction to On the Soul: The inner life of the animal presents itself to us in its outer activity, and teaches us that we too dwell innately in our bodies. When the bird flies away, and doesn’t bump into the branches and other… More

The Metaphysics of Aristotle

- Aristotle. The Metaphysics of Aristotle. Translated by Joe Sachs. Santa Fe, NM: Green Lion Press, 1999.
From the publisher: Joe Sachs has followed up his success with his translation of Aristotle’s Physics, published by Rutgers University Press, with a new translation of Metaphysics. Sachs’s translations bring distinguished new light onto… More

Poetics

- Aristotle. On Poetics. Translated by Seth Benardete and Michael Davis. South Bend, IN: St. Augustine’s Press, 2002.
First lines (W.D. Ross translation) : I propose to treat of Poetry in itself and of its various kinds, noting the essential quality of each, to inquire into the structure of the plot as requisite to a good poem; into the number and nature of the parts of… More

Nicomachean Ethics

- Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics. Translated by Robert Bartlett and Susan Collins. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011.
First lines (W.D. Ross translation): Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and pursuit, is thought to aim at some good; and for this reason the good has rightly been declared to be that at which all things aim. But a certain difference is… More

Politics

- Aristotle. The Politics. Translated by Carnes Lord. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984.
Excerpt: Every state is a community of some kind, and every community is established with a view to some good; for mankind always act in order to obtain that which they think good. But, if all communities aim at some good, the state or political community,… More

Multimedia

Conversations with Bill Kristol: Harvey Mansfield XVI

- Conversations with Bill Kristol: Harvey Mansfield XVI - Harvey Mansfield (Interview 16), Conversations with Bill Kristol, Released: December 31, 2018.
In this release, Harvey Mansfield discusses what we can learn from Aristotle about democracy and the relationship of philosophy and politics. The release discusses the book Aristotle: Democracy and Political Science, written by the late Delba Winthrop.

Aristotle’s God

- Lecture 3, Aristotle's God, of PHL 354/CTI 335, History of Christian Philosophy, The University of Texas at Austin, Spring 2013

Steven Smith – Intro to Political Philosophy: Aristotle I

- Smith, Steven B., "Introduction to Political Philosophy," Open Yale Courses, 24 lectures, Fall 2006.
About the course: This course is intended as an introduction to political philosophy as seen through an examination of some of the major texts and thinkers of the Western political tradition. Three broad themes that are central to understanding political life… More

Steven Smith – Intro to Political Philosophy: Aristotle II

- Smith, Steven B., "Introduction to Political Philosophy," Open Yale Courses, 24 lectures, Fall 2006.
About the course: This course is intended as an introduction to political philosophy as seen through an examination of some of the major texts and thinkers of the Western political tradition. Three broad themes that are central to understanding political life… More

Metaphysics

- International Catholic University video clip from a course by Ralph McInerny on the Metaphysics of Aristotle.

Leo Strauss on the Nicomachean Ethics

- Audio Recording. Leo Strauss, Seminar on Nicomachean Ethics, University of Chicago, Spring 1963.
Audio recording of a seminar taught by Leo Strauss at the University of Chicago on Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics in the spring of 1963.