Search -
The Politics of Aristotle (1); Introduction and Translation
The Politics of Aristotle Introduction and Translation - 1 Author:Aristotle Volume: 1 General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1885 Original Publisher: Clarendon Press Subjects: Political science Constitutional law Athens (Greece) Crete (Greece) Carthage (Extinct city) Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or m... more »issing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: INTRODUCTION. The writings of Aristotle are almost entirely wanting in the charm of style, and several of them cannot even be said to have the merit of clearness. In the Politics we are often unable to follow the drift of the argument; the frequent digressions and conflicting points of view which arise are troublesome and perplexing to us. We do not understand why the writer should again and again have repeated himself; why he should have made promises which he never fulfills; why he should be always referring to what has preceded, or to what follows. He sometimes crosses over from his own line of argument to that of his opponent; and then returns again without indicating that he has made a change of front. There are words and clauses which seem to be out of place; or at any rate not to be duly subordinated to the rest of the passage. No other work of genius is so irregular in structure as some of the Aristotelian writings. And yet this defect of form has not prevented their exercising the greatest influence on philosophy and literature ; the half-understood words of Aristotle have become laws of thought to other ages. With the causes of these peculiarities we are not at present concerned. The style of Aristotle runs up into the more general question of the manner in which his writings were compiled or have been transmitted to us. Are they the work of one or of many? Do they proceed from the hand or mind of a single writer, or are they the accumulatio...« less