The Works of Aristotle, vol. 1
Overview
It is impossible to overstate Aristotle’s importance in the development of Western thought. A student of Plato, Aristotle quickly distinguished himself from his teacher by rejecting the theory of forms—the belief that the characteristics of any physical thing (roundness, redness) exist apart from it in an abstract realm of forms. Aristotle taught that forms could not be properly understood apart from the physical objects. After a five-year period tutoring the young Alexander the Great, Aristotle set up his own school, the Lyceum, as a rival to Plato’s Academy.
Aristotle is known as the father of logic. He was the first thinker to establish a system of reasoning. One of his best-known rules of logic is the syllogism: for example, “All men are mortal; Socrates is a man; therefore, Socrates is mortal.” Aristotle was also the first thinker to create classifications for knowledge (e.g. mathematics, poetry, etc.).
Aristotle’s works had a profound influence on Thomas Aquinas. Aquinas held Aristotle in such high regard that he refers to him simply as “the Philosopher” throughout his work.
The digital edition of this volume gives you the kind of intertextual connections that philosophers and theologians have dreamed of for centuries. This book is completely indexed and linked across all the other works in your digital library. Jump back and forth between Aristotle and Aquinas with a click. Examine Plato and Aristotle’s similarities and differences with side-by-side textual comparison. The digital edition of this volume will save you time and energy while giving you better access to some of the most important thought in history.
- Presents ancient philosophical thought from Aristotle
- Explores concepts of logic and classification of knowledge
- Provides a look at ancient perspectives on philosophical topics
- Categoriae and De Interpretatione (English: Categories and On Interpretation) trans. E.M. Edghill
- Analytica Priora (English: Prior Analytics) trans. A.J. Jenkinson
- Analytica Posteriora (English: Posterior Analytics) trans. G.R.G. Mure
- Topica and De Sophisticsis Elenchis (English: Topics and On Sophistical Refutations) trans. W.A. Pickard-Cambridge
Top Highlights
“Expressions which are in no way composite signify substance, quantity, quality, relation, place, time, position, state, action, or affection.” (source)
“Things are said to be named ‘equivocally’ when, though they have a common name, the definition corresponding with the name differs for each.” (source)
“Substance, in the truest and primary and most definite sense of the word, is that which is neither predicable of a subject nor present in a subject; for instance, the individual man or horse. But in a secondary sense those things are called substances within which, as species, the primary [15] substances are included; also those which, as genera, include the species. For instance, the individual man is included in the species ‘man’, and the genus to which the species belongs is ‘animal’; these, therefore—that is to say, the species ‘man’ and the genus ‘animal’—are termed secondary substances.” (source)
“Everything except primary substances is either predicable of a primary substance or present in a primary substance” (source)
“To sum up, it is a distinctive mark of substance, that, while remaining numerically one and the same, it is capable of admitting contrary qualities, the modification taking place through a change in the substance itself.” (source)
Sir William David Ross (AD 1877–1971) was born in Thurso, Scotland, and spent the first six years of his life in India. He attended the University of Edinburgh, where he graduated with first-class honors in classical studies. He graduated from Baliol College, Oxford, in 1898, with firsts in classics and humanities. In 1900, Dr. Ross accepted a lectureship at Oriel College, Oxford. Dr. Ross served as Provost of Oriel College from 1929 to 1947 and vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford from 1941 to 1944. Dr. Ross served as president of the Aristotelian Society (1939), the British Academy (1936–1940), and the Union Academique Internationale (1947). Dr. Ross was a translator and an eminent moral philosopher in his own right. The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy says of Dr. Ross: “It is hard to think of another modern British academic philosopher who similarly distinguished himself not only as a first-rate critic and original theorist, but also as a high-level scholar, educator, editor, translator, administrator, and public official.” Dr. Ross also wrote Aristotle, Plato’s Theory of Ideas, and Kant’s Ethical Theory: A Commentary on the Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten.