Aristotle

About the book

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.

• Philosophical interpretation
• Logic and ethics
• Critical method

Why read it

For a demanding exposition that demonstrates how close philosophical reading can become an argument with its subject.

English study · edited by Alexander Bain and G. Croom Robertson, second edition, 1880