Aristotle: a Contemporary Appreciation

Under the guidance of Professor Veatch, Aristotle stands forth again as the philosopher who, above all, speaks simply and directly to the common sense of all mankind. Today, Professor Veatch believes, the time may be ripe for a belated recognition that Aristotle is "a truly live option in philosophy." The discussion begins with the Physics—for Aristotle, the discipline embracing all aspects of the natural world—and examines Aristotle's doctrine of categories and his celebrated "four causes." Turning to the De Anima, Professor Veatch casts aside many errors of interpretation which have come about because of mistaken readings of the term soul and gives an intelligible account of Aristotle's psychology, seen within the context of his system as a whole. Next, the varieties of human achievement are surveyed in Aristotelian terms, with introductory discussions of the Ethics, Politics, and the Poetics. Turning to the Metaphysics, the author demonstrates that the question of the unity of subject matter in Aristotle's metaphysics does not warrant the great difficulty that has been made of it. Finally—reversing to good effect the traditional order—Aristotelian logic is presented with superb clarity and ease.