Customer Reviews

Metaphysics (Great Books in Philosophy)

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Amazon.com, for reasons best known to themselves, have put my review of the Prometheus books translation of Metaphysics under the Penguin books translation (see below). Just to make things perfectly clear, the Prometheus books translation is bad, the Penguin books translation is good. Now, no matter where they put this, the truth will out.

This translation of Aristotle's Metaphysics is published by NuVision Publications, which says that they are "specializing in rare, out-of-print books still in demand." The translator is W. D. Ross, and the translation was first published by Oxford University Press in the early nineteen thirties. It was later republished by Random House under the editorship of Richard McKeon. It seems that the translation is now in the public domain since the title page has no data on copyright. NuVision is to be commended for making available classics that are out of print. But they have hardly done justice to W. D. Ross. I have only made my way through Book III (out of XIV)of the Metaphysics, but I am distressed by too frequent errors of punctuation, omission of words, change of word order, and a total mangling of the last paragraph of Book III that makes it altogther unintelligible. Aristotle deserves better, and so does the reputation of W. D. Ross.

You should first note that, when choosing a volume such as this, the quality of the translation is of primary importance. In my experience, one of three publishers who consistently offer outstanding translations of classic philosophical and literary texts is Penguin Classics. To avoid poor translations, please notice reviewer complaints about volumes offered by certain other publishers.
In this work, Aristotle first exposes what he finds to be the logical errors of earlier thinkers. Although he recurrently trains his fire even on his old teacher, Plato, Aristotle's system of thought does not finally escape Platonism. This volume presents several major undertakings, [1] Aristotle's logic, [2] his systematic definitions and arguments as to the nature and priority of "substance", relative aspects of actuality, potentiality, process, differentia, unity and multiplicity, and [3] his theology (First Philosophy). From Book Gamma: "There must be some one science that gives an account of all... and that also gives an account of substance... of that which is one qua that which is one and of that which is qua that which is... The shortcoming of current examinations of these topics is not their failure to be philosophy, but the priority of substance, on which the current philosophical consensus has no view. There are affections peculiar to [quantification as being quantification]... in the same way there are peculiarities of that which is just qua that which is. And it is the truth about these that the philosopher is after." While Aristotle is often said to be the ideological godfather of so-called positivism (a particularly dogmatic species of materialism), he would reject the title. So-called positivists tend to proudly insist that they reject metaphysics. The obvious problem with this assertion is that it is itself metaphysical (as Aristotle would immediately point out). Throughout most of the history of systematic thought, metaphysics has been seen as the supreme discipline (Isaac Newton, the greatest of physicists and mathematicians, found physics and mathematics to be less fascinating than theology, as had Rene Descartes and Blaise Pascal). But the Enlightenment brought with it a rather paranoiac suspicion of pure reason, and especially of First Philosophy. Aristotle would strongly disapprove; "It is, however, vital not to overlook the question of what it is to be a thing and the definitional account of how it is what it is. If we leave these out, scientific inquiry is mere shadow boxing." (Epsilon 1)
Some discourses of The Metaphysics are surprisingly readable, some are quite esoteric, some are puzzling (perhaps even to Aristotle?). Are Socrates and what-it-was-to-be Socrates identical? The author seems to think yes, at least in some sense. The exhaustive attempts to define essence, substance, and yes, definition itself (in Books Zeta and Eta), serve to demonstrate why many presume to avoid metaphysics. Those who call themselves positivists probably won't read this particular work of Aristotle, perhaps claiming even to be proud that they didn't "waste" their time with it. Indeed, some discussions seem merely confusing. Book Kappa revisits arguments and questions introduced earlier, and Aristotle presents his fully developed theology, at times elegant and at times incongruent, in the final chapters of Lambda. For the student of philosophy this remains an important book, one that is foundational to the science of being, metaphysics.

This extraordinary text totally paved the way for the rest of Western metaphysics. It is a lucid text, though still difficult because of the complexity of the ideas. In it, Aristotle posits his famous causes of being, material, formal, efficient, final. And he conceptualizes the criteria for essence. There is almost no way to master the contents of this body of work, it has challenged the greatest thinkers ever since its rediscovery and will continue to astound and mystify for as long as it continues to exist.

This translation is fair, though the Hugh Tredennick is a bit clearer.

This is one of the foundation works of Western Philosophy. It deals with what lies beyond natural philosophy( physics) and what we might call ' ultimate reality'. The work is in thirteen books , probably lecture notes collected by Aristotle's student, a fact which explains the choppiness and technical quality of the style.
The great predecessor Plato whose Theory of Ideas Aristotle puts through the wringer is a master of literary style, while Aristotle is more the prosaic and dry of the two great figures of Greek Philosophy.
The heart of this work is the discussion of 'Ontology' .The more empircal Aristotle focuses on distinctions between ' actuality' and 'potentiality' on on the progression from what is implicity real to what is realized as Real.
One of the most important sections has to do with the dichotomy between ' substance' and ' essence' and the presentation of four different kinds of causes i.e. material, efficient, formal, final.
Years ago I had trouble straightening this out in my head, and feel I have never really mastered it.
This is one of the great books which it is not easy, and not particularly fun to read.
I might also add that while it is ridiculous to blame Aristotle for this, the 'master of all who know' presented a ' science' of reality whose methods impeded the development of true science for centuries.
Aristotle by this work made the studying of 'Metaphysics' the 'highest ' of all forms of philosophical and intellectual endeavor.
It seems to me this work is thus of great historical importance for any student of philosophy, or of the history of ideas.
However whether in all its quest for reality it gives us any true sense of reality, is another question.

I preface my remarks with two disclaimers. (1) I would not presume to "review" Aristotle, but I can superficially review this edition. (2) I do not know Greek.

I recommend buying this book, but not as your main text of the "Metaphysics". For your main text of the "Metaphysics", I recommend the 1924 translation by W.D. Ross, which is not in print, but you can find it used. The "Metaphysics" is famously difficult. I found the Ross translation clearer and more comprehensible than that of Tancred-Lawson (T-L). I was about one-third of the way through the T-L translation when I had to give up. But it was through the T-L bibliography that I found the Ross translation, so if that was all the T-L did for me, it would have been enough.

I also did not quite like the tone and style of this translation. I found it too informal and colloquial for my tastes. It is quite interesting in that respect, but in the end it feels stylistically wrong.

But the T-L is still well worth buying. The various introductory and textual essays are excellent and very well worth reading. T-L's alternative translation is good to have as a backup. Sometimes when it is Ross that is obscure, T-L can clarify the matter.

One warning is that you had better read the "Physics" before you read this, or it will not make any sense to you at all.

Summary: At this price, the book is highly recommended as your backup translation of, and general companion to, the "Metaphysics."

Amazon has listed this Kindle version of the Metaphysics as belonging to the Penguin Classics, but that's not clear. The sample does not attribute the text to any publisher. It has no copyright page, no picture, no table of contents, no introduction --nothing to say who the publisher or translator is. The translation appears to be ok, and may well be worth 95 cents.

There is in fact a decent Kindle version of the Metaphysics, and in fact from the Penguin Classics, but Amazon has made it hard to find. A search in the Kindle store does not turn it up. Instead, you must go to Amazon's description of the Penguin Classics paperback of the Metaphysics, choose the Look Inside feature, and while you're there choose the Kindle Book look. The version that comes up is in fact a Penguin Classic for Kindle, complete with cover, linked table of contents, copyright, and so on, worth the $4.97.

We have here more of many reasons to be cautious when buying Kindle books. The publishing and editorial standards are too often very low, and Amazon often does not "shelve" the books correctly in the Kindle store, sometimes, as here, putting the correct edition almost out of reach.

I love the book. This book was in great condition. All the pages were so neat; no written, nothing as it was described.

No ugly OCR typos, and I have scanned the entire text to go through and hi-light parts I want to reference later. This is just the straight text and you can customize it yourself with highlights and notes to suite your own purpose.

I love Aristotle and his Metaphysics is absolutely amazing. But the Prometheus Books translation, translated by John McMahon, is not exactly great. The translation itself is fine, but it's obvious that minimal effort was put into the book as a whole.... ie: there's no index of terms or people. If at all possible, I would recomend getting a different (and hopefully more useful) translation.