Gaurav Sagar’s Reviews > History of Western Philosophy > Status Update

In the corpus of Aristotle's works, three treatises on ethics have a place, but two of these are now generally held to be by disciples. The third, the Nicomachean Ethics, remains for the most part unquestioned as to authenticity, but even in this book there a portion which is held by many to have been incorporated from one of the works of the disciples.

In the corpus of Aristotle's works, three treatises on ethics have a place, but two of these are now generally held to be by disciples. The third, the Nicomachean Ethics, remains for the most part unquestioned as to authenticity, but even in this book there a portion which is held by many to have been incorporated from one of the works of the disciples.

In reading any important philosopher, but most of all in reading Aristotle, it is necessary to study him in two ways: with reference to his predecessors, and with reference to his successors. In the format aspect, Aristotle's merits are enormous; in the latter, his demerits are equally enormous. For his demerits, however, his successors are more responsible than he is.

Plato's cosmogony is set forth in the Timaeus, which was translated into Latin by Cicero, and was, moreover, the only one of the dialogues that was known in the West in the Middle Ages.. Both then, and earlier in Neplatonism, it had more influence than anything else in Plato, which is curious, as it certainly contains more that is simply silly than is to be found in his other writings.

Two opposite attitudes towards the Greeks are common at the present day. One, which was practically universal from Renaissance until very very recent times, views the Greeks with utmost superstitious reverence, as the invention of all that is best, and as men of superhuman genius whom the moderns cannot hope to equal.

Two opposite attitudes towards the Greeks are common at the present day. One, which was practically universal from Renaissance until very very recent times, views the Greeks with utmost superstitious reverence, as the invention of all that is best, and as men of superhuman genius whom the moderns cannot hope to equal.