Selections

by W. D Ross

A tour de force of scholarship and the art of translation, this volume includes a fully integrated set of translations by a single team, a feature enabling Greekless readers to read widely and deeply in Aristotle with continuity, appreciation for his use of technical terminology and for the structure of his philosophy as a whole. Building on this advantage is the most detailed glossary in any student edition, one which offers unparalleled definition and explication of Aristotle's terminology and makes clear the correspondence between Greek terms and their renderings. The editors' extensive notes, also co-ordinated with the glossary, suggest alternative translations of problematic passages, discuss Aristotles argument, and elucidate difficult passages.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Classics, History

359 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1955

Reviews

[Avery Hughes]

bro sure has a lot to say

[gabby mola · Rating 1 out of 5]

tired of this man

[Polo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm more of a Plato fan, but it was pleasure reading Aristotle.

[Andrew Morgan Perschbacher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everybody should read Aristotle and this is an excellent summation of his crucial works. The commentary the editors provide is helpful. Good for the serious and the curious.

[Grzegorz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even though I don't care much for Aristotle's philosophy. This edition is excellent for getting an understanding of Aristotle through the primary texts, especially with the footnotes and glossary.

[George L · Rating 2 out of 5]

Compared to THE Complete Works of Aristotle by JONATHAN BARNES, Irwin & Fine's translations are somewhat more opaque, and one would get confused more easily. Here is an example:

Physics 190a22
Irwin & Fine
"We say that something comes to be F from being G, but not that the G comes to be F, more often in cases where G does not remain; for instance, we say that a man comes to be musical from being unmusical, but not that the unmusical comes to be musical from a man."
Barnes:
"We speak of ‘becoming that from this’ instead of ‘this becoming that’ more in the case of what does not survive the change—’becoming musical from unmusical’, not ‘from man’ "

Judge for yourselves which one makes better sense.

Also, many important sections are not included in the book, and you will be informed of this omission by this '*********************************' at the end of a passage; many of these omissions are in fact very important for explication of Aristotle's argument.

Still, you might consider this book for its exquisite Glossary.

TL:DR Read J.Barnes' translation together with this translation to save yourselves some hair-pulling.

[Benjamin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Three reasons I love this book:

1. The translations take a middle road between a word for word translation of Aristotle's Greek and a more fluent but less accurate rendering in English prose. Where the translators have supplemented the Greek to make the English more readable, the additions are placed in brackets . Though sometimes I found the bracketed text unnecessary, it rarely interfered with my reading.

2. The explanatory notes provided are in many cases enlightening and in some cases they were indispensable to my easily grasping what Aristotle is saying, or might be saying--as the notes are often careful to distinguish.

3. This book extracts sections from Aristotle's works judged by scholars to be the most important and influential parts of his various works. In addition, helpful subject headings are discreetly inserted throughout nearly every page of the book between the different sections of a selection.

This is a great resource for the student of Aristotle or for anyone wanting to dig into his writing.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is probably the only readable translation there is. Although Aristotle himself wrote beautifully, all that has come down to us are writings that are probably the lecture notes his students wrote. So it's pretty hard to follow.
This translation, however, makes the best of it, and it has informative footnotes as well as a comprehensive and detailed glossary. All around this is the book to get if you want to read Aristotle.
In the UPenn MOOC that I took, we read Selections from: the Categories, Physics, De Anima, Metaphysics, Ethics, Nicomachean Ethics

[Ian Paredes · Rating 4 out of 5]

now, i'm relatively new to studying philosophy (i've just recently majored in it), and i'm especially new to studying aristotle, so i can't really give any comments on the translation. however, there's TONS of footnotes and a very illuminating glossary of words that provide both discussions on what a certain word might mean, as well as alternative translations that might illuminate a certain passage. tying this book with the cambridge companion on aristotle is highly recommended.

[James Benson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid treatment of Aristotle's most important works, covering more material than most introductory texts (e.g. Categories, Prior and Posterior Analytics, De Interpretatione, Topics, and many others, including all of Aristotle's most famous books). Well annotated and with a useful glossary included. This was the text for my class on Aristotle in university, and I was very much satisfied with it.

[Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good if you can get past his interrupted/unfinished train of thought. Disagreed with some of his ideas but still very interesting. Need to chisel away at it more when I'm a more patient kind of person.

[André Vridstoft · Rating 4 out of 5]

Besides the fact that the authors have made a few mis-translations from the original greek text, this is actually one of the best english translations i have read to date.

[Paul Cato · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having gone through his system I will give Aristotle his credit (though I will always remain faithful to Plato) - he did seem to wrap up the world pretty successfully.

[Kymber Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good collection of all works

Good primary source to cite (w becker #s)

[Gab Nug · Rating 4 out of 5]

For graduate ancient philosophy. Good collection with decent translation.

[leo · Rating 3 out of 5]

the editing is very well done and their commentary is very helpful in understanding wtf aristotle is talking about. i am just not a fan of most of aristotle’s work i fear

[Adam]

I've read through the Physics, the Metaphysics, De Anima, Nichomachean Ethics, and the Politics.

[Basilius]

Review of The Nicomachean Ethics