Walter Sylesh’s Reviews > A History of Western Philosophy, Volume 1: The Classical Mind > Status Update

Completed Aristotle's Ethics, Politics and views on Art. This is the side I'm most familiar with as they find mention in political science books of all ideological leanings. W.T.Jones has encapsulated in short but has taken a less hagiographic tone than when he began. Now I'm left with 40 more pages with a brief take on Epicuranism, Scepticism, Stoicism and Roman thought from the late classical period.

What a world of difference Aristotle made to the classical mind! In not looking for a higher, elevated world and not getting stuck in a strictly rationalist(logical) jam, Aristotle's contribution using empiricism and classification undid the damages of his teacher Plato. He ushered in a period of knowing and progress till the Western mind was closed off through mystic philosophy. Onto his politics and ethics now!

Done with Jones' narration of the upheaval in 5th Century BC Greece that led to the rise of irrationality and subjectivism as exemplified by the sceptic Sophists. He followed it up with the first rational and empirical answer to the confusion sowed - the Atomists and their mechanistic universe that built on the Milesian premise and solved the problem of change. It did have other gaping holes which I will see soon!