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The Complete Works of Aristotle: The Revised Oxford Translation (Bollingen Series, No. 71, Part 2) (2 Volume Set) Two-volume set Edition
The Oxford Translation of Aristotle was originally published in 12 volumes between 1912 and 1954. It is universally recognized as the standard English version of Aristotle. This revised edition contains the substance of the original Translation, slightly emended in light of recent scholarship; three of the original versions have been replaced by new translations; and a new and enlarged selection of Fragments has been added. The aim of the translation remains the same: to make the surviving works of Aristotle readily accessible to English speaking readers.
- ISBN-100691099502
- ISBN-13978-0691099507
- EditionTwo-volume set
- PublisherPrinceton University Press
- Publication dateJanuary 1, 1984
- LanguageEnglish, Ancient Greek
- Dimensions6.5 x 3.5 x 9 inches
- Print length2487 pages
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Product details
- Publisher : Princeton University Press; Two-volume set edition (January 1, 1984)
- Language : English, Ancient Greek
- Hardcover : 2487 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0691099502
- ISBN-13 : 978-0691099507
- Item Weight : 5.4 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.5 x 3.5 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #975,991 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #533 in History of Philosophy
- #1,596 in Ancient Greek & Roman Philosophy
- #36,061 in Unknown
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About the author
Aristotle (/ˈærɪˌstɒtəl/; Greek: Ἀριστοτέλης [aristotélɛːs], Aristotélēs; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and scientist born in the city of Stagira, Chalkidice, on the northern periphery of Classical Greece. His father, Nicomachus, died when Aristotle was a child, whereafter Proxenus of Atarneus became his guardian. At eighteen, he joined Plato's Academy in Athens and remained there until the age of thirty-seven (c. 347 BC). His writings cover many subjects – including physics, biology, zoology, metaphysics, logic, ethics, aesthetics, poetry, theater, music, rhetoric, linguistics, politics and government – and constitute the first comprehensive system of Western philosophy. Shortly after Plato died, Aristotle left Athens and, at the request of Philip of Macedon, tutored Alexander the Great starting from 343 BC. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, "Aristotle was the first genuine scientist in history ... [and] every scientist is in his debt."
Teaching Alexander the Great gave Aristotle many opportunities and an abundance of supplies. He established a library in the Lyceum which aided in the production of many of his hundreds of books. The fact that Aristotle was a pupil of Plato contributed to his former views of Platonism, but, following Plato's death, Aristotle immersed himself in empirical studies and shifted from Platonism to empiricism. He believed all peoples' concepts and all of their knowledge was ultimately based on perception. Aristotle's views on natural sciences represent the groundwork underlying many of his works.
Aristotle's views on physical science profoundly shaped medieval scholarship. Their influence extended into the Renaissance and were not replaced systematically until the Enlightenment and theories such as classical mechanics. Some of Aristotle's zoological observations, such as on the hectocotyl (reproductive) arm of the octopus, were not confirmed or refuted until the 19th century. His works contain the earliest known formal study of logic, which was incorporated in the late 19th century into modern formal logic.
In metaphysics, Aristotelianism profoundly influenced Judeo-Islamic philosophical and theological thought during the Middle Ages and continues to influence Christian theology, especially the scholastic tradition of the Catholic Church. Aristotle was well known among medieval Muslim intellectuals and revered as "The First Teacher" (Arabic: المعلم الأول).
His ethics, though always influential, gained renewed interest with the modern advent of virtue ethics. All aspects of Aristotle's philosophy continue to be the object of active academic study today. Though Aristotle wrote many elegant treatises and dialogues – Cicero described his literary style as "a river of gold" – it is thought that only around a third of his original output has survived.
Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by Copy of Lysippus (Jastrow (2006)) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
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I think Aristotle was well represented in this translation and he is my favorite of all ancient philosophers because of clear and direct manner. For a beginner this all may be a bit much, and confusing. I recommend reading some works about Aristotle and his life, some Greek history as well. I recommend immersing yourself in that culture in order to properly understand these types of work in their historical context, then you can apply this to today. Trying to interpret any work outside of its historical context will lead to misinterpretation, at the very least a lack of appreciation for these types of works.
Aristotle is masterful in his thought process and you can see that throughout his writings. He is not always right but you can see how he worked things out as his works are likely his notes and not his published works, we dont actually even have his published works. At any rate this is a great work that I recommend to everyone.
Nevertheless, there is technically no better English version of Aristotle other than this two-volume set.
However, the lack of annotation and introduction will likely make the works overwhelming to a reader who is not well versed in philosophy, and even some who are. I realize that this was necessary to keep the size of the set down, but it still presents a problem. The writing style of Aristotle (or his students) is very terse and complex -- even specialist scholars often have trouble understanding what the texts say. This is particularly acute in the case of the Organon (the logical works), but is true in some sense of every work in the corpus. Not just the actual sentences but even the overall ideas can be difficult -- issues that were extremely important to Greek philosophers, such as the number of elements or the nature of numbers, are not just unimportant but sometimes incomprehensible to a modern reader who is not familiar with Greek philosophical dialogue.
A number of the more famous works (De Anima, Poetics, Rhetoric, Politics, and the Nicomachean Ethics, for example) are available in annotated editions with good introductions from the Penguin Classics or Oxford World Classics. If you have access to a good library (or a lot of money), the Clarendon Press (Oxford) editions of the works offer very detailed commentary and annotation of a number of the works, including most of the Organon. These editions are likely to prove of more value to the beginning reader. I also recommend reading a general introduction to Aristotle and his philosophy before diving into his actual works; I think that only the Poetics is more or less comprehensible to a modern reader with no grounding in general Greek philosophy and Aristotelian philosophy.
However, if your goal is to eventually read all of Aristotle, you will need a complete edition at some point, since not everything is available in these other editions (this is particularly true of the spurious works), and this is probably the best one you can get. However, there are online editions of Aristotle's works in English -- printing those out will be cheaper than paying almost $100 for this set, and may fit the bill just as well.
In the end, I find the lack of annotation to be a serious flaw of this set, and I give it two stars because I think this set will be of use primarily to people who already have a good grounding in Aristotle and have a specific need for a compact edition of his complete works.