George Grote
Life and career
George Grote (1794–1871) combined a career in banking and Parliament with an extensive study of ancient Greece. His twelve-volume History of Greece helped reshape nineteenth-century accounts of Greek politics, while separate works addressed Plato and Aristotle. A supporter of democratic reform and a student of the utilitarian thinkers James Mill and Jeremy Bentham, Grote brought political convictions as well as classical learning to his scholarship. His Aristotle appeared after his death, edited by Alexander Bain and George Croom Robertson.
A philosophical project edited after its author
The book presents both Grote's sustained engagement with Aristotle and the limits of a project left incomplete. Editorial assembly matters: separate discussions do not necessarily constitute the finished architecture the author might have chosen. The reader encounters argument through exposition, comparison and criticism. Its historical importance need not make every judgment a final account of Aristotle's intentions or of subsequent scholarship.
Aristotle
George Grote's study considers Aristotle's writings and philosophical procedures rather than offering only a short life or a general introduction. Explanations of doctrines are accompanied by judgments about their strengths, difficulties, and relations to other positions. Alexander Bain and G. Croom Robertson edited the work after Grote's death; this second edition adds essays on ethics and politics found among his papers. The additions are important, but their presence does not make every intended part equally complete. Readers should approach the volume as a substantial nineteenth-century interpretation, with its own intellectual priorities. It can reward patient comparison with Aristotle's texts, especially when Grote turns a definition or distinction over from several angles and shows how an apparently technical question affects a larger account of human action. English study · edited by Alexander Bain and G. Croom Robertson, second edition, 1880.
Identify the problem before the verdict
Begin a section by asking which Aristotelian question Grote is explaining. Separate an account of the ancient position from his own assessment of it. When the edition adds material, notice how it relates to the surrounding discussion. Reading at this scale is more rewarding than expecting the volume to function as a uniformly completed modern introduction to every part of Aristotle's work.