Category Archives: Books

Books

Aristotle and Rational Discovery: Speaking of Nature

In this lively and original book, Russell Winslow pursues a newinterpretation of logos in Aristotle. Rather than a reading ofrationality that cleaves human beings from nature, this newinterpretation suggests that, for Aristotle, consistent and dependable rational arguments reveal a deep dependency upon nature. To this end,the author shows that a rational account of a being is in fact subjectto the very same principle that governs the physical motion andgeneration of a being under inquiry. Among the many consequences of this argument is a rejection of both of the prevailing oppositionalclaims that Aristotle’s methodological procedure of discovery is one resting on either empirical or conceptual grounds: discovery reveals amore complex structure than can be grasped by either of these modern modes. Further, Winslow argues that this interpretation of rationaldiscovery also contributes to the ethical debates surrounding Aristotle’s work, insofar as an ethical claim is achieved throughreason, but is not thereby conceived as objective. Again, the demand for agreement in ethical/political decision will be disclosed assuperseding in its complexity both those accounts of ethical decision as subjective (for example, “emotivist” accounts) and those asobjective (“realist” accounts).

Books

Pleasure in Aristotle’s Ethics

Michael Weinman’s Pleasure in Aristotle’s Ethics provides an innovative and crucially important account of the role of pleasure and desire in Aristotle’s philosophy. Michael Weinman seeks to overcome common impasses in the mainstream interpretation of Aristotle’s ethical philosophy through the careful study of Aristotle’s account of pleasure in the human, but not merely human, good, thus presenting a new way in which we can improve our understanding of Aristotle’s ethics. Weinman asserts that we should read Aristotle’s ethical arguments in the light of his views on the cosmos (the living whole we call nature) and the never-changing principles informing that living whole.

Books

Cambridge Companion to Plato’s Republic

This Companion provides a fresh and comprehensive account of this outstanding work, which remains among the most frequently read works of Greek philosophy, indeed of Classical antiquity in general. The sixteen essays, by authors who represent various academic disciplines, bring a spectrum of interpretive approaches to bear in order to aid the understanding of a wide-ranging audience, from first-time readers of the Republic who require guidance, to more experienced readers who wish to explore contemporary currents in the work’s interpretation. The three initial chapters address aspects of the work as a whole. They are followed by essays that match closely the sequence in which topics are presented in the ten books of the Republic. Since the Republic returns frequently to the same topics by different routes, so do the authors of this volume, who provide the readers with divergent yet complementary perspectives by which to appreciate the Republic’s principal concerns.

Books

The Ethics of Ontology

Announcing the publication of Christopher P. Long’s, The Ethics of Ontology: Rethinking an Aristotelian Legacy, published by the State University of New York Press.

The publisher’s description of the book reads as follows:

A novel rereading of the relationship between ethics and ontology in Aristotle. Concerned with the meaning and function of principles in an era that appears to have given up on their possibility altogether, Christopher P. Long traces the paths of Aristotle’s thinking concerning finite being from the Categories, through the Physics, to the Metaphysics, and ultimately into the Nicomachean Ethics.

Long argues that a dynamic and open conception of principles emerges in these works that challenges the traditional tendency to seek security in permanent and eternal absolutes. He rethinks the meaning of Aristotle’s notion of principle (archē) and spans the divide of analytic and continental methodological approaches to ancient Greek philosophy, while connecting Aristotle’s thinking to that of Levinas, Gadamer, and Heidegger.

“This book is cogently presented, well written, and easy to follow. Long defends a controversial thesis and provides persuasive and extensive argumentation. The carefully constructed treatment of the relationship between Aristotle’s theoretical and practical philosophy offers an integrated interpretation of Aristotle’s philosophy as a whole.” — Walter Brogan, coeditor of American Continental Philosophy: A Reader