Customer Reviews

Nicomachean Ethics: Aristotle

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It is more than a little amusing to see reviewers stumbling over their tongues to comment on Aristotle. Volumes--no, entire libraries--have been dedicated to Aristotelian commentary. I doubt any prospective Amazon buyer cares what Joe Smith from Anytown, USA thinks of Aristotle. What would be helpful is an assessment of the particular translations.

Hands down, Martin Ostwald's is, in my opinion, the best available. Well-annotated, with no interpretive essay to clutter the text, Ostwald immerses himself in the Athenian moral vocabulary, to our great benefit. Especially worthwhile is the glossary of oft-used, untranslatable ethical terms at the end of the book. Here, Ostwald clearly shows that the Greeks could convey in scant semantic space what it takes us an entire paragraph to even approximately explain.

The glossary alone is worth the price of the book. It goes into the meaning and evoked connotations of the Greek technical terms (and, mirabile dictu, gives the spellings in GREEK SCRIPT as well). 'Words,' for the Greeks, were 'charged' with meanings, not just hollow sounds. One can sense the 'Germanic' academic rigor coursing through Ostwald's scholarship.

This book was exactly as described in the product description. There are several versions and translations of this book, and this one helped with a little bit more modern day english.

great book for classic leadership strategies and tactics. used in college and found Nichomachean Ethics to have profound effects on our culture of leadership in america.