Book review
This is a landmark in philosophical thinking, establishing Philosophy as a discipline with a methodology(logic) following the principles of noncontradiction and sufficient reason, yet at the same time including an appreciation of Philosophy as an endeavour that discloses the many meanings of Being. It begins with all men desire to know and continues to assemble the totality of conditions necessary for such knowledge in many realms of Being. This is the work which many commentators claim contains an implicit definition of Philosophy as ‘the systematic understanding of the world as a systematic whole. A large number of aporetic questions are discussed in relation to hylomorphic theory which consists of media of change(space, time matter), kinds of change, principles of change, causes of change and the 3 sciences dedicated to studying change. Kant would later embrace much of this metaphysics whilst elaborating upon it in terms of his categories of understanding/judgement. Dante called Aristotle the ‘master of those that know’. The Philosophers idea of God as an essentially self reflective entity leading the perfect life of contemplation was later taken up in Kantian thinking and at the time it was written appealed to those Greek thinkers who separated the idea of the creative demiurge from the reflective being whose thought was sufficient unto itself. The translation is one of the better translations but perhaps does not reach the level of the Ross translation.
- Goodreads rating – 4.06
- REVIEW – Michael James