Major Works

• 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

Commentary

• Aristotle on Participatory Democracy

  - Winthrop, Delba. "Aristotle on Participatory Democracy." Polity, Vol. 11, No. 2, Winter, 1978.
  Excerpt: “When political scientists and historians of political philosophy they are understandably tempted to speculate what he might have said about a political problem with which we Americans are vitally concerned: participatory democracy. If our own… More

• Education and Culture in the Political Thought of Aristotle by Carnes Lord

  - Lord, Carnes. Education and Culture in the Political Thought of Aristotle. Ithaca: Cornell U. Press, 1982.
  From a Review (The Journal of Politics, Vol. 47, No. 3.): Lord’s study of Aristotle, which for the most part is a commentary on the last 2 books of the politics, has as its main purpose the reputation of the long-standing opinion that modern literary… More

• Aristotle’s Theory of the State

  - Johnson, Curtis. Aristotle’s Theory of the State. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1990.
  Review: “The main thesis of this … book is that ‘ through the many twists and turns of Aristotle’s writing on the subject of politics which holds the many parts of the politics together one may identify an inner logic, however… More

• Aristotle on the Human Good

  - Kraut, R. Aristotle on the Human Good. Princeton: Princeton U. Press, 1991.
  Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, which equates the ultimate end of human life with happiness (eudaimonia),  it is thought by many readers to argue that this highest goal consists in the largest possible aggregate of intrinsic goods. Richard Kraut… More

• Citizens and Statesmen: A study of Aristotle’s Politics

  - Nichols, Mary P. Citizens and Statesmen: A study of Aristotle’s Politics. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1992.
  Excerpt: ” In the first two books of the Politics,  Aristotle explores the dual origins of the city. He gives to explanations of why human beings are political animals and why the city is natural. Human beings are political animals, in the 1st place,… More

• Public and Private in Aristotle’s Politics

  - Swanson, J. and D. Corbin. Public and Private in Aristotle’s Politics. Ithaca: Cornell U. Press, 1992.
  Review: “In this work Swanson  set out to challenge modern liberal interpretations of the Politics.  At issue is whether or not Aristotle that here’s to the rigid public/private that emerges, for example, in Hannah Arendt’s decidedly… More

• The Problems of a Political Animal

  - Yack, Bernard. The Problems of a Political Animal. Berkeley: U. of Cal. Press, 1993.
  Excerpt: “The shared sentiments and commitments that constitute a community are often the source of its deepest conflicts. Anyone who has lived in a family rather than merely longed for a home knows that all too well. Strangers may cheat you, but only… More

• Action and Contemplation: Studies in the Moral and Political Thought of Aristotle

  - Bartlett R, and Collins S. eds Action and Contemplation: Studies in the Moral and Political Thought of Aristotle, Albany: Suny Press, 1999.
  “This book not only contains a set of first-rate essays on Aristotle, but it also supplies the context in which readers can be convinced that Aristotle, after several centuries, is once again relevant and useful. If I were looking for one book that… 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

• 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, 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’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 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

Multimedia

• 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

• 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

• Aristotle’s Guide to the Good Life

  - Robert Bartlett of Boston College delivers a talk ("Aristotle's Guide to the Good Life") at Emory University (Sept. 12, 2012).