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The Complete Works of Aristotle #1
The Complete Works of Aristotle: The Revised Oxford Translation, Volume 1
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of the original Translation, slightly emended in light of recent scholarship; three of the original versions have been replaced by new translations; and a new and enlarged selection of Fragments has been added.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.
1256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 323
About the author
Aristotle
4,357 books5,955 followersAristotle (Greek: Αριστοτέλης; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, and the arts. As the founder of the Peripatetic school of philosophy in the Lyceum in Athens, he began the wider Aristotelian tradition that followed, which set the groundwork for the development of modern science.
Little is known about Aristotle's life. He was born in the city of Stagira in northern Greece during the Classical period. His father, Nicomachus, died when Aristotle was a child, and he was brought up by a guardian. At 17 or 18, he joined Plato's Academy in Athens and remained there until the age of 37 (c. 347 BC). Shortly after Plato died, Aristotle left Athens and, at the request of Philip II of Macedon, tutored his son Alexander the Great beginning in 343 BC. He established a library in the Lyceum, which helped him to produce many of his hundreds of books on papyrus scrolls.
Though Aristotle wrote many treatises and dialogues for publication, only around a third of his original output has survived, none of it intended for publication. Aristotle provided a complex synthesis of the various philosophies existing prior to him. His teachings and methods of inquiry have had a significant impact across the world, and remain a subject of contemporary philosophical discussion.
Aristotle's views profoundly shaped medieval scholarship. The influence of his physical science extended from late antiquity and the Early Middle Ages into the Renaissance, and was not replaced systematically until the Enlightenment and theories such as classical mechanics were developed. He influenced Judeo-Islamic philosophies during the Middle Ages, as well as Christian theology, especially the Neoplatonism of the Early Church and the scholastic tradition of the Catholic Church.
Aristotle was revered among medieval Muslim scholars as "The First Teacher", and among medieval Christians like Thomas Aquinas as simply "The Philosopher", while the poet Dante Alighieri called him "the master of those who know". His works contain the earliest known formal study of logic, and were studied by medieval scholars such as Pierre Abélard and Jean Buridan. Aristotle's influence on logic continued well into the 19th century. In addition, his ethics, although always influential, gained renewed interest with the modern advent of virtue ethics.
Little is known about Aristotle's life. He was born in the city of Stagira in northern Greece during the Classical period. His father, Nicomachus, died when Aristotle was a child, and he was brought up by a guardian. At 17 or 18, he joined Plato's Academy in Athens and remained there until the age of 37 (c. 347 BC). Shortly after Plato died, Aristotle left Athens and, at the request of Philip II of Macedon, tutored his son Alexander the Great beginning in 343 BC. He established a library in the Lyceum, which helped him to produce many of his hundreds of books on papyrus scrolls.
Though Aristotle wrote many treatises and dialogues for publication, only around a third of his original output has survived, none of it intended for publication. Aristotle provided a complex synthesis of the various philosophies existing prior to him. His teachings and methods of inquiry have had a significant impact across the world, and remain a subject of contemporary philosophical discussion.
Aristotle's views profoundly shaped medieval scholarship. The influence of his physical science extended from late antiquity and the Early Middle Ages into the Renaissance, and was not replaced systematically until the Enlightenment and theories such as classical mechanics were developed. He influenced Judeo-Islamic philosophies during the Middle Ages, as well as Christian theology, especially the Neoplatonism of the Early Church and the scholastic tradition of the Catholic Church.
Aristotle was revered among medieval Muslim scholars as "The First Teacher", and among medieval Christians like Thomas Aquinas as simply "The Philosopher", while the poet Dante Alighieri called him "the master of those who know". His works contain the earliest known formal study of logic, and were studied by medieval scholars such as Pierre Abélard and Jean Buridan. Aristotle's influence on logic continued well into the 19th century. In addition, his ethics, although always influential, gained renewed interest with the modern advent of virtue ethics.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
October 16, 2010
Anyone who has even the slightest interest in Philosophy has to of course read Aristotle. However, reading the Ethics, Logic, Poetics, Physics and Metaphysics are satisfying in their own right. Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics are probably the most insightful and useful reconstruction of human ethical life that has been written. The Poetics are an exceptional source for an understanding of Greek Tragedy. And the Physics/Metaphysics are vital for anyone interested in the history of Religion and science, both because of his mistakes and because of the methodological insights he develops. Finally, it is worth reading these works if for no other reason than the way he develops a worldview of nature and theology that is so dramatically different than our own.
May 13, 2015
Much harder for me to read than Plato was. Plato used a story format and addressed more interesting topics whereas Aristotle often feels like he talks more about semantics. Both their influences have held back science, and perhaps in Aristotle's case, social progress. Paradoxically, he also effectively started science. I suppose any figure of influence will have some negative impacts when they make mistakes. I'm (was at the time) more of a Platonist but I like(d) Aristotle's objectivity, rules of logic, theories of potentiality to actuality, time as a measurement of motion, virtue ethics (morality is having good character), and natural telos. He focused on this world because we can observe it, though interesting still believed in an ether in the sky and had many similar ideas to Plato with out intending to. I didn't read all of this collection, but focused on various significant parts as well as contributions from scholars.
Favorite Quotes:
"It is the mark of an intelligent person to entertain an idea without accepting it."
"We are what we do repeatedly. Excellence then is not a single act, but a habit."
"The aim of art is not to represent the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance."
"There is no great genius without a mixture of madness."
"Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime."
"Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies."
Favorite Quotes:
"It is the mark of an intelligent person to entertain an idea without accepting it."
"We are what we do repeatedly. Excellence then is not a single act, but a habit."
"The aim of art is not to represent the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance."
"There is no great genius without a mixture of madness."
"Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime."
"Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies."
September 25, 2017
The Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume 1 includes: Categories, De Interpretatione, Prior Analytics, Posterior Analytics, Topics, Sophistical Refutations, Physics, On the Heavens, On Generation and Corruption, Meteorology, On the Universe, On the Soul, Sense and Sensibilia, On Memory, On Sleep, On Dreams, On Divination in Sleep, On Length and Shortness of Life, On Youth, Old Age, Life and Death, and Respiration, On Breath, History of Animals, Parts of Animals, Movement of Animals, Progression of Animals, Generation of Animals, On Colors, On things Heard, and finally Physiognomonics.
Before studying Aristotle, I recommend reading or having a solid idea of the Presocratic philosophers such as Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Xenophanes, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Melissus, Pythagoras, Anaxagoras, and Empedocles. Too include the philosophy of the Sophists such as Protagoras, Gorgias, Hippias, Antiphon, and Thrasymachus. Finally, have read or an understanding of Plato and Socrates as Aristotle (the father of reason) destroys these philosopher's ideas and theories.
Before studying Aristotle, I recommend reading or having a solid idea of the Presocratic philosophers such as Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Xenophanes, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Melissus, Pythagoras, Anaxagoras, and Empedocles. Too include the philosophy of the Sophists such as Protagoras, Gorgias, Hippias, Antiphon, and Thrasymachus. Finally, have read or an understanding of Plato and Socrates as Aristotle (the father of reason) destroys these philosopher's ideas and theories.
February 19, 2017
Volume One: Logic, nature, and the living world
The Organon: the foundations of reasoning
The collection begins with the works traditionally grouped under the Organon, Aristotle’s logical writings: Categories, On Interpretation (De Interpretatione), Prior Analytics, Posterior Analytics, Topics, and Sophistical Refutations. These treatises examine the structures of propositions and arguments, the conditions of valid inference, the nature of scientific knowledge, and the techniques through which arguments can be tested or exposed as deceptive.
The Categories investigates fundamental kinds of predication and the ways in which things can be described. Its discussion of substance, quantity, quality, relation, and other categories provides an influential framework for analysing what can be said about things and how different kinds of statements relate to their subjects. Although its classification can appear unfamiliar to modern readers, the work establishes distinctions that remain important in the history of metaphysics and logic.
On Interpretation turns to language and thought, examining statements, affirmation and negation, and the relationship between propositions and truth. Its famous discussion of future contingents raises difficult questions about whether statements concerning future events must already be true or false, and how such truth relates to necessity and human freedom.
The Prior Analytics develops Aristotle’s systematic account of syllogistic reasoning. It explores how conclusions follow from premises and provides a formal framework for evaluating arguments. The Posterior Analytics moves beyond validity to ask what constitutes scientific knowledge. For Aristotle, genuine understanding involves grasping why something is the case through an appropriate explanation of its causes and principles. This distinction between merely knowing that something happens and understanding why it happens remains philosophically significant.
In the Topics, Aristotle considers dialectical reasoning, in which arguments are constructed from generally accepted opinions and tested through discussion. The Sophistical Refutations examines misleading arguments and the errors that make invalid reasoning appear persuasive. Together, these works demonstrate Aristotle’s concern not only with establishing knowledge but also with distinguishing sound reasoning from plausible appearances.
The Organon is demanding, especially for readers unfamiliar with formal logic, but it reveals the systematic character of Aristotle’s thought. Barnes’s edition is particularly useful here because J. L. Ackrill’s translations of Categories and On Interpretation replace older versions and improve access to two foundational texts. Nevertheless, readers seeking a contemporary introduction to logic may benefit from explanatory commentary alongside the original treatises.
The Physics: understanding change and nature
In the Physics, Aristotle investigates the fundamental principles of the natural world, including motion, change, causation, infinity, place, and time. Rather than treating nature as a collection of isolated events, he seeks to identify the principles that make natural processes intelligible.
His account of the four causes is particularly influential. To understand something fully, Aristotle argues, we may need to identify what it is made of, the form or structure that makes it what it is, the source of its change, and the end or function towards which it develops. These explanatory dimensions provide a broader account of causation than the modern tendency to concentrate primarily on efficient causes.
Aristotle’s treatment of motion and change also introduces the distinction between potentiality and actuality, which becomes central to his metaphysics. Something can possess the potential to become a particular thing or enter a particular state without yet being actual in that form. This framework allows him to explain development without reducing change to an unintelligible transition between incompatible states.
The Physics is one of the collection’s most philosophically important works, although its scientific assumptions differ considerably from those of modern physics. Its lasting value lies less in its superseded physical explanations than in its sustained examination of causation, explanation, and the intelligibility of change.
On the Heavens and On Generation and Corruption
In On the Heavens, Aristotle develops his cosmological account of the universe, discussing celestial bodies, the structure of the heavens, and the differences between heavenly and terrestrial motion. He argues for a finite, spherical cosmos and distinguishes celestial movement from the processes of change found on Earth.
Much of this cosmology has been displaced by modern astronomy. Nevertheless, the work is historically important because it illustrates how Aristotle attempted to construct a coherent picture of the universe from philosophical principles, observational evidence, and assumptions about natural motion.
On Generation and Corruption examines how substances come into being, undergo alteration, and cease to exist. Aristotle distinguishes substantial generation and destruction from changes in which an existing thing merely acquires a new quality or condition. His account of the elements and their transformations belongs to an obsolete physical framework, but the underlying questions concerning identity, persistence, and transformation remain philosophically relevant.
Together, these works show Aristotle attempting to explain the natural world through an integrated account of matter, form, motion, and change. They also demonstrate why his philosophy must be read both historically and critically: his explanatory ambitions remain impressive, even where his conclusions do not survive scientific scrutiny.
Meteorology: the physical environment
Meteorology extends Aristotle’s investigation to atmospheric and terrestrial phenomena, including winds, clouds, rain, comets, earthquakes, and other natural occurrences. Aristotle attempts to explain these events through physical processes rather than treating them as arbitrary or inexplicable occurrences.
Many of his specific explanations are incorrect by modern scientific standards. Yet the treatise offers an illuminating example of early systematic natural inquiry. Aristotle seeks recurring causes and general principles that can explain observable phenomena, demonstrating the same explanatory ambition found in his more abstract philosophical works.
The text is particularly interesting for readers studying the history of science, since it shows both the promise and the limitations of ancient natural philosophy. Observation and rational explanation can be productive even when the available evidence and theoretical assumptions are insufficient to yield reliable conclusions.
On the Soul: life, perception, and thought
On the Soul (De Anima) is among Aristotle’s most significant philosophical works. It asks what the soul is and what distinguishes living things from inanimate matter. Aristotle does not simply treat the soul as a separate object inhabiting the body; instead, he understands it in relation to the organisation and capacities of a living organism.
He distinguishes different powers of life, including nutrition and reproduction, perception, desire, locomotion, and intellect. Plants possess the nutritive capacity, animals possess additional sensory powers, and human beings possess rational capacities. This framework provides the basis for Aristotle’s account of the distinctive characteristics of living things.
His discussions of perception, imagination, desire, and intellect remain philosophically challenging. In particular, his account of intellect has generated centuries of disagreement about the relationship between thought, the body, and the possibility of intellectual activity independent of ordinary bodily processes.
The work is indispensable for anyone interested in philosophy of mind, psychology, or theories of life. Its importance lies not in offering a ready-made solution to contemporary debates about consciousness but in demonstrating how questions about mind and life can be approached through a systematic analysis of capacities and functions.
The Parva Naturalia: memory, dreams, and sensation
The group of shorter works known as the Parva Naturalia develops themes introduced in On the Soul. These treatises examine subjects including sensation, memory and recollection, sleep and waking, dreams, divination in dreams, longevity and shortness of life, youth and old age, and life and death.
Their subjects may seem less grand than those of the Metaphysics, but they are revealing because they bring Aristotle’s philosophical method to ordinary experiences. Memory, for instance, is examined not merely as a store of information but as a capacity involving the representation of past experience. Dreams are investigated in relation to bodily conditions and the activity of perception.
Some explanations are dated, and the boundaries between observation, speculation, and philosophical inference are not always clear. Nonetheless, these works show Aristotle investigating phenomena that modern psychology and neuroscience continue to approach through different methods. They also help connect his abstract account of the soul with the concrete activities of living organisms.
Aristotle’s biological and zoological works
The biological treatises are among the most distinctive parts of the collection. They include History of Animals, Parts of Animals, Movement of Animals, Progression of Animals, and Generation of Animals. Together, they demonstrate Aristotle’s sustained interest in observation, comparison, classification, anatomy, reproduction, and the functional organisation of living things.
History of Animals collects and compares observations about animal species, their characteristics, habitats, behaviours, and reproductive processes. Its encyclopaedic scope is impressive, although individual reports vary in reliability and some derive from second-hand accounts.
Parts of Animals asks why animals possess particular structures and how these structures contribute to their ways of life. Aristotle’s explanations frequently appeal to function, seeking to understand biological parts in relation to the activities and requirements of the organism. This makes the work especially significant for the history of biological explanation.
Movement of Animals investigates how animals initiate and coordinate movement, while Progression of Animals focuses more specifically on the physical mechanisms involved in locomotion. Generation of Animals examines reproduction and embryonic development, attempting to explain how new organisms arise and how parental contributions relate to the formation of offspring.
These works reveal Aristotle at his most empirically engaged. His observations were sometimes remarkably perceptive, and his comparative approach represents an important stage in the history of biology. Yet his explanations also reflect the limitations of ancient anatomy and physiology, and his conclusions should not be confused with modern evolutionary or developmental biology.
Their inclusion is essential to the collection’s overall value. Without them, readers might mistake Aristotle for a purely abstract philosopher. They reveal instead a thinker who regarded the careful study of living things as a central philosophical activity.
Volume Two: Metaphysics, ethics, politics, and the arts
The Metaphysics: being and first principles
The Metaphysics is arguably Aristotle’s most ambitious philosophical work. It investigates being as being, the nature of substance, the principles underlying reality, and the relationship between potentiality and actuality. It also considers the causes and principles that make knowledge of the world possible.
One of its central concerns is substance: what makes a thing the particular thing that it is? Aristotle examines the relationship between matter and form, arguing that an adequate understanding of concrete things must account for both their material constitution and their organising structure. His analysis develops ideas introduced in the Physics while addressing deeper questions about identity, existence, and explanation.
The work also contains Aristotle’s influential account of the unmoved mover, an ultimate principle associated with eternal motion and pure actuality. This argument became enormously important in later philosophical and theological traditions, particularly in medieval interpretations of Aristotle.
The Metaphysics is intellectually rewarding but notoriously difficult. It consists of discussions that do not always form a continuous argument, and its books vary in subject, style, and apparent purpose. Scholars continue to debate how its different sections relate to one another and how Aristotle’s arguments should be interpreted.
Its difficulty is partly a consequence of its ambition. Aristotle is not merely proposing answers to isolated questions; he is attempting to clarify the most fundamental concepts through which reality can be understood. For readers willing to proceed slowly, it offers one of the richest encounters in the entire collection.
The Nicomachean Ethics: virtue and human flourishing
The Nicomachean Ethics is one of Aristotle’s most accessible and enduringly influential works. It begins with the question of the highest human good and identifies it with eudaimonia, commonly translated as happiness or flourishing. This is not simply pleasure or subjective satisfaction, but a life lived well through the exercise of human capacities over time.
Aristotle argues that human flourishing depends on virtue, understood as a stable disposition to feel and act appropriately. Moral virtues are developed through habituation: people become just by performing just actions and courageous by practising courage. Yet good character is not merely mechanical conformity to rules. It requires practical wisdom, the ability to judge what a particular situation demands.
His account of the doctrine of the mean is especially well known. Virtue generally involves finding an appropriate response between excess and deficiency, although the right response depends on the circumstances and cannot be reduced to a simple formula. Courage, for example, occupies a mean between rashness and cowardice.
The work also considers friendship, pleasure, responsibility, justice, and the nature of contemplation. Aristotle’s discussion of friendship is particularly rich, distinguishing relationships based on utility, pleasure, and mutual appreciation of character. His treatment of contemplation, meanwhile, raises questions about whether the highest form of human flourishing lies primarily in intellectual activity or in a broader life of moral and practical engagement.
The Nicomachean Ethics remains essential reading for virtue ethics and contemporary debates about character, well-being, and the purposes of human life. Its principal limitation is that Aristotle’s social world differs sharply from our own. His assumptions about social hierarchy and the conditions necessary for flourishing can exclude many people by modern standards. Nevertheless, his insistence that ethics concerns the formation of character and the quality of a whole life remains compelling.
The Eudemian Ethics: an alternative account of the good life
The Eudemian Ethics offers another substantial treatment of virtue, happiness, and practical reason. It overlaps with the Nicomachean Ethics in important respects, but it also differs in emphasis and arrangement, making it valuable for understanding Aristotle’s ethical thought beyond his most famous work.
Like the Nicomachean Ethics, it asks what constitutes a flourishing life and how virtue contributes to it. It explores moral character, deliberation, friendship, and the relationship between human excellence and happiness. Its treatment of these questions provides both confirmation and qualification of ideas found elsewhere in Aristotle’s ethical writings.
The relationship between the two ethical treatises is a matter of scholarly debate. Their similarities, differences, and passages shared between them raise questions about composition, revision, and the transmission of Aristotle’s texts. Readers should not automatically treat them as two entirely independent statements of a finished ethical system.
Its inclusion is nevertheless a major strength. It allows readers to compare Aristotle’s formulations directly and to appreciate that ancient philosophical writing often survives in forms more complex than a single, definitive authorial text might suggest.
The Magna Moralia: ethics and questions of authorship
The Magna Moralia, or Great Ethics, is traditionally associated with Aristotle and presents a comparatively compact discussion of moral virtue, happiness, and ethical conduct. It addresses familiar Aristotelian themes, including the relationship between reason and desire, the nature of virtue, and the role of practical judgement.
Its precise authorship and relationship to Aristotle’s other ethical works are disputed. It may represent an alternative presentation of Aristotelian ideas rather than an entirely straightforward work by Aristotle himself. Its presence in the collection therefore illustrates an important editorial principle: a comprehensive account of the Aristotelian corpus should preserve historically significant texts while allowing readers to distinguish them from works whose authenticity is less secure.
Although it is generally less influential than the Nicomachean Ethics, it is useful for comparative study. Readers interested in the development and transmission of ancient ethical philosophy will find it more rewarding than those seeking only Aristotle’s clearest or most authoritative account of virtue.
The Politics: the individual and the political community
In the Politics, Aristotle extends his ethical inquiry into the organisation of society. He famously describes human beings as political animals, arguing that the political community is not merely a convenient arrangement for mutual protection but a setting in which distinctively human capacities can be developed.
Aristotle examines the household, citizenship, different forms of government, the causes of political instability, and the characteristics of a well-ordered constitution. He compares rule by one, a few, or many, distinguishing legitimate forms of government from their corrupt counterparts. His approach is analytical and comparative: political institutions should be understood in relation to their purposes, structures, and practical conditions.
The work is especially valuable for its insistence that political arrangements cannot be evaluated solely by their stability or economic efficiency. The purposes of political life, the quality of citizenship, and the relationship between institutions and human flourishing also matter.
Yet the Politics contains some of Aristotle’s most troubling positions. His defence of natural slavery, his exclusion of women from equal political standing, and his restricted conception of citizenship reveal the hierarchical assumptions of his society. These are not incidental details that can simply be ignored; they form part of his political philosophy and must be critically examined.
Despite these limitations, the Politics remains a foundational text in political theory. It provides an opportunity to study both the enduring power of Aristotle’s questions and the historical limitations of his answers... (Not enough space to fit full review of remaining works: Economics, Rhetoric and Poetics).
The Organon: the foundations of reasoning
The collection begins with the works traditionally grouped under the Organon, Aristotle’s logical writings: Categories, On Interpretation (De Interpretatione), Prior Analytics, Posterior Analytics, Topics, and Sophistical Refutations. These treatises examine the structures of propositions and arguments, the conditions of valid inference, the nature of scientific knowledge, and the techniques through which arguments can be tested or exposed as deceptive.
The Categories investigates fundamental kinds of predication and the ways in which things can be described. Its discussion of substance, quantity, quality, relation, and other categories provides an influential framework for analysing what can be said about things and how different kinds of statements relate to their subjects. Although its classification can appear unfamiliar to modern readers, the work establishes distinctions that remain important in the history of metaphysics and logic.
On Interpretation turns to language and thought, examining statements, affirmation and negation, and the relationship between propositions and truth. Its famous discussion of future contingents raises difficult questions about whether statements concerning future events must already be true or false, and how such truth relates to necessity and human freedom.
The Prior Analytics develops Aristotle’s systematic account of syllogistic reasoning. It explores how conclusions follow from premises and provides a formal framework for evaluating arguments. The Posterior Analytics moves beyond validity to ask what constitutes scientific knowledge. For Aristotle, genuine understanding involves grasping why something is the case through an appropriate explanation of its causes and principles. This distinction between merely knowing that something happens and understanding why it happens remains philosophically significant.
In the Topics, Aristotle considers dialectical reasoning, in which arguments are constructed from generally accepted opinions and tested through discussion. The Sophistical Refutations examines misleading arguments and the errors that make invalid reasoning appear persuasive. Together, these works demonstrate Aristotle’s concern not only with establishing knowledge but also with distinguishing sound reasoning from plausible appearances.
The Organon is demanding, especially for readers unfamiliar with formal logic, but it reveals the systematic character of Aristotle’s thought. Barnes’s edition is particularly useful here because J. L. Ackrill’s translations of Categories and On Interpretation replace older versions and improve access to two foundational texts. Nevertheless, readers seeking a contemporary introduction to logic may benefit from explanatory commentary alongside the original treatises.
The Physics: understanding change and nature
In the Physics, Aristotle investigates the fundamental principles of the natural world, including motion, change, causation, infinity, place, and time. Rather than treating nature as a collection of isolated events, he seeks to identify the principles that make natural processes intelligible.
His account of the four causes is particularly influential. To understand something fully, Aristotle argues, we may need to identify what it is made of, the form or structure that makes it what it is, the source of its change, and the end or function towards which it develops. These explanatory dimensions provide a broader account of causation than the modern tendency to concentrate primarily on efficient causes.
Aristotle’s treatment of motion and change also introduces the distinction between potentiality and actuality, which becomes central to his metaphysics. Something can possess the potential to become a particular thing or enter a particular state without yet being actual in that form. This framework allows him to explain development without reducing change to an unintelligible transition between incompatible states.
The Physics is one of the collection’s most philosophically important works, although its scientific assumptions differ considerably from those of modern physics. Its lasting value lies less in its superseded physical explanations than in its sustained examination of causation, explanation, and the intelligibility of change.
On the Heavens and On Generation and Corruption
In On the Heavens, Aristotle develops his cosmological account of the universe, discussing celestial bodies, the structure of the heavens, and the differences between heavenly and terrestrial motion. He argues for a finite, spherical cosmos and distinguishes celestial movement from the processes of change found on Earth.
Much of this cosmology has been displaced by modern astronomy. Nevertheless, the work is historically important because it illustrates how Aristotle attempted to construct a coherent picture of the universe from philosophical principles, observational evidence, and assumptions about natural motion.
On Generation and Corruption examines how substances come into being, undergo alteration, and cease to exist. Aristotle distinguishes substantial generation and destruction from changes in which an existing thing merely acquires a new quality or condition. His account of the elements and their transformations belongs to an obsolete physical framework, but the underlying questions concerning identity, persistence, and transformation remain philosophically relevant.
Together, these works show Aristotle attempting to explain the natural world through an integrated account of matter, form, motion, and change. They also demonstrate why his philosophy must be read both historically and critically: his explanatory ambitions remain impressive, even where his conclusions do not survive scientific scrutiny.
Meteorology: the physical environment
Meteorology extends Aristotle’s investigation to atmospheric and terrestrial phenomena, including winds, clouds, rain, comets, earthquakes, and other natural occurrences. Aristotle attempts to explain these events through physical processes rather than treating them as arbitrary or inexplicable occurrences.
Many of his specific explanations are incorrect by modern scientific standards. Yet the treatise offers an illuminating example of early systematic natural inquiry. Aristotle seeks recurring causes and general principles that can explain observable phenomena, demonstrating the same explanatory ambition found in his more abstract philosophical works.
The text is particularly interesting for readers studying the history of science, since it shows both the promise and the limitations of ancient natural philosophy. Observation and rational explanation can be productive even when the available evidence and theoretical assumptions are insufficient to yield reliable conclusions.
On the Soul: life, perception, and thought
On the Soul (De Anima) is among Aristotle’s most significant philosophical works. It asks what the soul is and what distinguishes living things from inanimate matter. Aristotle does not simply treat the soul as a separate object inhabiting the body; instead, he understands it in relation to the organisation and capacities of a living organism.
He distinguishes different powers of life, including nutrition and reproduction, perception, desire, locomotion, and intellect. Plants possess the nutritive capacity, animals possess additional sensory powers, and human beings possess rational capacities. This framework provides the basis for Aristotle’s account of the distinctive characteristics of living things.
His discussions of perception, imagination, desire, and intellect remain philosophically challenging. In particular, his account of intellect has generated centuries of disagreement about the relationship between thought, the body, and the possibility of intellectual activity independent of ordinary bodily processes.
The work is indispensable for anyone interested in philosophy of mind, psychology, or theories of life. Its importance lies not in offering a ready-made solution to contemporary debates about consciousness but in demonstrating how questions about mind and life can be approached through a systematic analysis of capacities and functions.
The Parva Naturalia: memory, dreams, and sensation
The group of shorter works known as the Parva Naturalia develops themes introduced in On the Soul. These treatises examine subjects including sensation, memory and recollection, sleep and waking, dreams, divination in dreams, longevity and shortness of life, youth and old age, and life and death.
Their subjects may seem less grand than those of the Metaphysics, but they are revealing because they bring Aristotle’s philosophical method to ordinary experiences. Memory, for instance, is examined not merely as a store of information but as a capacity involving the representation of past experience. Dreams are investigated in relation to bodily conditions and the activity of perception.
Some explanations are dated, and the boundaries between observation, speculation, and philosophical inference are not always clear. Nonetheless, these works show Aristotle investigating phenomena that modern psychology and neuroscience continue to approach through different methods. They also help connect his abstract account of the soul with the concrete activities of living organisms.
Aristotle’s biological and zoological works
The biological treatises are among the most distinctive parts of the collection. They include History of Animals, Parts of Animals, Movement of Animals, Progression of Animals, and Generation of Animals. Together, they demonstrate Aristotle’s sustained interest in observation, comparison, classification, anatomy, reproduction, and the functional organisation of living things.
History of Animals collects and compares observations about animal species, their characteristics, habitats, behaviours, and reproductive processes. Its encyclopaedic scope is impressive, although individual reports vary in reliability and some derive from second-hand accounts.
Parts of Animals asks why animals possess particular structures and how these structures contribute to their ways of life. Aristotle’s explanations frequently appeal to function, seeking to understand biological parts in relation to the activities and requirements of the organism. This makes the work especially significant for the history of biological explanation.
Movement of Animals investigates how animals initiate and coordinate movement, while Progression of Animals focuses more specifically on the physical mechanisms involved in locomotion. Generation of Animals examines reproduction and embryonic development, attempting to explain how new organisms arise and how parental contributions relate to the formation of offspring.
These works reveal Aristotle at his most empirically engaged. His observations were sometimes remarkably perceptive, and his comparative approach represents an important stage in the history of biology. Yet his explanations also reflect the limitations of ancient anatomy and physiology, and his conclusions should not be confused with modern evolutionary or developmental biology.
Their inclusion is essential to the collection’s overall value. Without them, readers might mistake Aristotle for a purely abstract philosopher. They reveal instead a thinker who regarded the careful study of living things as a central philosophical activity.
Volume Two: Metaphysics, ethics, politics, and the arts
The Metaphysics: being and first principles
The Metaphysics is arguably Aristotle’s most ambitious philosophical work. It investigates being as being, the nature of substance, the principles underlying reality, and the relationship between potentiality and actuality. It also considers the causes and principles that make knowledge of the world possible.
One of its central concerns is substance: what makes a thing the particular thing that it is? Aristotle examines the relationship between matter and form, arguing that an adequate understanding of concrete things must account for both their material constitution and their organising structure. His analysis develops ideas introduced in the Physics while addressing deeper questions about identity, existence, and explanation.
The work also contains Aristotle’s influential account of the unmoved mover, an ultimate principle associated with eternal motion and pure actuality. This argument became enormously important in later philosophical and theological traditions, particularly in medieval interpretations of Aristotle.
The Metaphysics is intellectually rewarding but notoriously difficult. It consists of discussions that do not always form a continuous argument, and its books vary in subject, style, and apparent purpose. Scholars continue to debate how its different sections relate to one another and how Aristotle’s arguments should be interpreted.
Its difficulty is partly a consequence of its ambition. Aristotle is not merely proposing answers to isolated questions; he is attempting to clarify the most fundamental concepts through which reality can be understood. For readers willing to proceed slowly, it offers one of the richest encounters in the entire collection.
The Nicomachean Ethics: virtue and human flourishing
The Nicomachean Ethics is one of Aristotle’s most accessible and enduringly influential works. It begins with the question of the highest human good and identifies it with eudaimonia, commonly translated as happiness or flourishing. This is not simply pleasure or subjective satisfaction, but a life lived well through the exercise of human capacities over time.
Aristotle argues that human flourishing depends on virtue, understood as a stable disposition to feel and act appropriately. Moral virtues are developed through habituation: people become just by performing just actions and courageous by practising courage. Yet good character is not merely mechanical conformity to rules. It requires practical wisdom, the ability to judge what a particular situation demands.
His account of the doctrine of the mean is especially well known. Virtue generally involves finding an appropriate response between excess and deficiency, although the right response depends on the circumstances and cannot be reduced to a simple formula. Courage, for example, occupies a mean between rashness and cowardice.
The work also considers friendship, pleasure, responsibility, justice, and the nature of contemplation. Aristotle’s discussion of friendship is particularly rich, distinguishing relationships based on utility, pleasure, and mutual appreciation of character. His treatment of contemplation, meanwhile, raises questions about whether the highest form of human flourishing lies primarily in intellectual activity or in a broader life of moral and practical engagement.
The Nicomachean Ethics remains essential reading for virtue ethics and contemporary debates about character, well-being, and the purposes of human life. Its principal limitation is that Aristotle’s social world differs sharply from our own. His assumptions about social hierarchy and the conditions necessary for flourishing can exclude many people by modern standards. Nevertheless, his insistence that ethics concerns the formation of character and the quality of a whole life remains compelling.
The Eudemian Ethics: an alternative account of the good life
The Eudemian Ethics offers another substantial treatment of virtue, happiness, and practical reason. It overlaps with the Nicomachean Ethics in important respects, but it also differs in emphasis and arrangement, making it valuable for understanding Aristotle’s ethical thought beyond his most famous work.
Like the Nicomachean Ethics, it asks what constitutes a flourishing life and how virtue contributes to it. It explores moral character, deliberation, friendship, and the relationship between human excellence and happiness. Its treatment of these questions provides both confirmation and qualification of ideas found elsewhere in Aristotle’s ethical writings.
The relationship between the two ethical treatises is a matter of scholarly debate. Their similarities, differences, and passages shared between them raise questions about composition, revision, and the transmission of Aristotle’s texts. Readers should not automatically treat them as two entirely independent statements of a finished ethical system.
Its inclusion is nevertheless a major strength. It allows readers to compare Aristotle’s formulations directly and to appreciate that ancient philosophical writing often survives in forms more complex than a single, definitive authorial text might suggest.
The Magna Moralia: ethics and questions of authorship
The Magna Moralia, or Great Ethics, is traditionally associated with Aristotle and presents a comparatively compact discussion of moral virtue, happiness, and ethical conduct. It addresses familiar Aristotelian themes, including the relationship between reason and desire, the nature of virtue, and the role of practical judgement.
Its precise authorship and relationship to Aristotle’s other ethical works are disputed. It may represent an alternative presentation of Aristotelian ideas rather than an entirely straightforward work by Aristotle himself. Its presence in the collection therefore illustrates an important editorial principle: a comprehensive account of the Aristotelian corpus should preserve historically significant texts while allowing readers to distinguish them from works whose authenticity is less secure.
Although it is generally less influential than the Nicomachean Ethics, it is useful for comparative study. Readers interested in the development and transmission of ancient ethical philosophy will find it more rewarding than those seeking only Aristotle’s clearest or most authoritative account of virtue.
The Politics: the individual and the political community
In the Politics, Aristotle extends his ethical inquiry into the organisation of society. He famously describes human beings as political animals, arguing that the political community is not merely a convenient arrangement for mutual protection but a setting in which distinctively human capacities can be developed.
Aristotle examines the household, citizenship, different forms of government, the causes of political instability, and the characteristics of a well-ordered constitution. He compares rule by one, a few, or many, distinguishing legitimate forms of government from their corrupt counterparts. His approach is analytical and comparative: political institutions should be understood in relation to their purposes, structures, and practical conditions.
The work is especially valuable for its insistence that political arrangements cannot be evaluated solely by their stability or economic efficiency. The purposes of political life, the quality of citizenship, and the relationship between institutions and human flourishing also matter.
Yet the Politics contains some of Aristotle’s most troubling positions. His defence of natural slavery, his exclusion of women from equal political standing, and his restricted conception of citizenship reveal the hierarchical assumptions of his society. These are not incidental details that can simply be ignored; they form part of his political philosophy and must be critically examined.
Despite these limitations, the Politics remains a foundational text in political theory. It provides an opportunity to study both the enduring power of Aristotle’s questions and the historical limitations of his answers... (Not enough space to fit full review of remaining works: Economics, Rhetoric and Poetics).
January 21, 2009
Aristotle is one of the foundation authors on which I base my personal philosophy and he is also one of the greatest thinkers who ever lived. We only have what were notes to his lectures, yet reading them I feel the power of his mind is always present. The books included in this two-volume set range from the foundation of thinking of logic, scientific speculation on physics, psychology and astronomy, metaphysics, and moral guidelines with the Nicomachean Ethics perhaps the acme of his philosophy. I also especially enjoyed the five books on animals (history, parts, movement, progression, and generation). His powers of observation were unsurpassed and the connections that can be made between the concepts developed in the different books helps to develop a better understanding of his ideas. I would recommend Aristotle for those interested in the foundations of philosophy (along with the Dialogues of Plato).
May 9, 2021
I’m ashamed to say that I abandoned the Organon half way through as I had failed to understand it. God knows how you will. It’s not at all like Plato where you get out as much as you put in. Here you must completely understand every sentence or you’re lost. Granted, this is an edition without notes, but I’d need more than notes. I’d need a three year degree course just to begin to understand what he means. I’m told that the text is essentially notes to support a series of lectures, and looking through some of the others books in this collection I found then written in the same impenetrable style. Well, it was all sackcloth and ashes here. I have found the limit of my vast intellect. Prior to this I hadn’t been sure there was one.
After the weeping and lamentation was over I pretended I’d enjoyed being humbled like that, and looking through the collection again I found that not all the books are written in the same style. On the Soul and the Parva Naturalia can be read profitably by human beings. These are series of treatises on biology, but Aristotle strays into what we would consider physics and chemistry because crucially he does not understand about things like radiation and chemicals. He’s basically working without results based experimentation, with no previous scientists’ work to refer to, and his only instrument appears to be the pipette. What he does have is observation and the pumpings of his vast multi-cylindered intellect. If you want to see the internal workings of a brain so powerful it must stand at the limit of the humanly possible then read these books. On Divination in Sleep, one of the Parva Naturalia, is funny as well. There’s also On Breath. This is one of the psedepigrapha that got mixed up and passed down under his name. This gives a nice contrast because you can immediately see the difference between how Aristotle thinks and how normal humans think.
Anyway, let’s set all this aside and try to rate this edition. What we have is essentially the standard English edition of the entire Corpus Aristotelicum – all the works passed down from the ancient world under Aristotle’s name, plus the Athenian Constitution, but not the Medieval fakes. It’s based on the 12 volume Oxford translation, with translations revised or replaced and all the notes stripped out to compress it into two volumes. I’ve seen the physical books and they’re nicely made, though probably a little large to read on the bus. Translations are modern and as readable as they probably can be. I have knocked off a star for the digital edition. There’s no need to maintain the split into two volumes, though I do see there is now a one volume digital edition. As size is not an issue I don’t see why thay can’t add the notes back in. They must own the copyright and any tyepsetting cost could be offset by not having to pay a printer.
After the weeping and lamentation was over I pretended I’d enjoyed being humbled like that, and looking through the collection again I found that not all the books are written in the same style. On the Soul and the Parva Naturalia can be read profitably by human beings. These are series of treatises on biology, but Aristotle strays into what we would consider physics and chemistry because crucially he does not understand about things like radiation and chemicals. He’s basically working without results based experimentation, with no previous scientists’ work to refer to, and his only instrument appears to be the pipette. What he does have is observation and the pumpings of his vast multi-cylindered intellect. If you want to see the internal workings of a brain so powerful it must stand at the limit of the humanly possible then read these books. On Divination in Sleep, one of the Parva Naturalia, is funny as well. There’s also On Breath. This is one of the psedepigrapha that got mixed up and passed down under his name. This gives a nice contrast because you can immediately see the difference between how Aristotle thinks and how normal humans think.
Anyway, let’s set all this aside and try to rate this edition. What we have is essentially the standard English edition of the entire Corpus Aristotelicum – all the works passed down from the ancient world under Aristotle’s name, plus the Athenian Constitution, but not the Medieval fakes. It’s based on the 12 volume Oxford translation, with translations revised or replaced and all the notes stripped out to compress it into two volumes. I’ve seen the physical books and they’re nicely made, though probably a little large to read on the bus. Translations are modern and as readable as they probably can be. I have knocked off a star for the digital edition. There’s no need to maintain the split into two volumes, though I do see there is now a one volume digital edition. As size is not an issue I don’t see why thay can’t add the notes back in. They must own the copyright and any tyepsetting cost could be offset by not having to pay a printer.
August 27, 2024
I found what I read, most of the Organon, to be interesting. I relied more on lectures, as I'm going to be honest: it was a slog. That's not a point against Aristotle. This sort of literature will likely be a slog to anyone who isn't acutely interested in logic.
February 7, 2008
Aristotle is the master's master; he is, as Dante says, "the master of all who know."
Want to Read
November 25, 2008Aristotle is one of my right hand men. I just picked up this book about a month ago. I plan to read it in the near future.
October 17, 2026
Okay, nobody reads this one “casually.” Volume 1 covers the logic, physics, and biology side of Aristotle: the Categories, Prior and Posterior Analytics, Physics, On the Soul, and his animal studies. It’s wild how much of Western thinking traces back to this guy, and some of his observations about nature were centuries ahead of their time. But it’s dense, dry, and a lot of the science is obviously outdated. More of a reference to dip into than a read-through. Respect for anyone who finishes it.
May 21, 2025
This read is a slog. I recognize that for its time, Aristotle was revolutionary in laying out the rules of logic, which in some ways laid the foundation for scientific thinking. But still, whew, a hard read. Plato was the better story teller, more beautiful use of language and more eloquent. But I'm glad I finally invested the effort to read Aristotle. He had some great insights.
Read
April 18, 2020Read parts of “Parts of Animals”, book 5 of Physics, Alpha, Gamma, and Zeta of Metaphysics, books 1 & 2 of politics, and book 1 of NE. Not even a dint of the works by my dude but still a good time. Looking forward to finishing Politics and writing 60 pages about it hahaha
October 30, 2020
Worthy of the time spent.
October 30, 2020
Was a really good read! I used my free trial at audible to listen to the book! Millions of other books on there also! Here’s a link to get a free trial to audible! https://amzn.to/34Ess3c
July 3, 2024
I loved this book too much
November 26, 2025
okay grandpa let’s get you to bed
February 26, 2009
Rating: D+
OK, I'll confess. I'm not an Aristotle fan. I chose to read "Nicomachean Ethics", "Politics" and "Poetics" because it was on The New Lifetime Reading Plan by Clifton Fadiman. Obviously, around 350 B.C., basic concepts regarding alternative governments and their variations had not been thought through too well. Aristotle does a great job of reasoning through all of the good and bad points in a logical progression. He does the same with what makes a person "Happy" and the good, bad and ugly of tragedy vs. epic poetry. The granularity is excruciating and I found myself reading words just to read words.
Learned some things in "Ethics" about his view on temperaments. Loved what he says in "Politics, Book VII, Part 13": "This makes men fancy that external goods are the cause of happiness, yet we might as well say that a brilliant performance on the lyre was to be attributed to the instrument and not to the skill of the performer." His comments on poets (Homer, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides) and their works shed a more contemporary critic.
The New Lifetime Reading Plan: Number 13
OK, I'll confess. I'm not an Aristotle fan. I chose to read "Nicomachean Ethics", "Politics" and "Poetics" because it was on The New Lifetime Reading Plan by Clifton Fadiman. Obviously, around 350 B.C., basic concepts regarding alternative governments and their variations had not been thought through too well. Aristotle does a great job of reasoning through all of the good and bad points in a logical progression. He does the same with what makes a person "Happy" and the good, bad and ugly of tragedy vs. epic poetry. The granularity is excruciating and I found myself reading words just to read words.
Learned some things in "Ethics" about his view on temperaments. Loved what he says in "Politics, Book VII, Part 13": "This makes men fancy that external goods are the cause of happiness, yet we might as well say that a brilliant performance on the lyre was to be attributed to the instrument and not to the skill of the performer." His comments on poets (Homer, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides) and their works shed a more contemporary critic.
The New Lifetime Reading Plan: Number 13
December 14, 2007
So far have only read 'Categories', 'Prior Analytics', and 'Posterior Analytics'. A giant of a mind! A is A.
July 24, 2008
"Happiness is an activity of the soul in accordance with virtue." —from the Nichomachaen Ethics
Um, need I say more?
Um, need I say more?
September 19, 2008
the only editions that have the access to all the works of Aristotle. excellent for anyone who loves the ancient philosophy. :)
October 18, 2008
Very thick and hard to get through. Unless you're a philosophy professor, stick to Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics.
September 5, 2010
Assigned for Philosophy class
June 21, 2011
The writings and teachings of Aristole. Thought provoking. A little difficult to read.
August 1, 2012
A strong sweeping blow of translation into the works of Aristotle.... excellent endeavor!
January 25, 2013
I prefer plato, aristole is beyond me.
Want to Read
January 26, 2015to read this book
August 30, 2017
The world is what we have
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews