Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics Books Ii--iv

This volume, which is part of the Clarendon Aristotle Series, offers a clear and faithful new translation of Books II to IV of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, accompanied by an analytical commentary focusing on philosophical issues. In Books II to IV, Aristotle gives his account of virtue of character in general and of the principal virtues individually, topics of central interest both to his ethical theory and to modern ethical theorists. Consequently major themes of the commentary are connections on the one hand with other relevant Aristotelian texts and on the other with modern writings, both text-related and thematic. Since the main aim of the volume is to make Aristotle's thought as accessible as possible to readers who do not know Greek, considerable care is taken to elucidate both his technical vocabulary and significant features of his Greek idiom. C. C. W. Taylor also provides systematic comparisons with other translations into English and other languages, and frequent references to other commentaries, ancient, medieval, and modern. These features make the work useful to other scholars in the field as well as to students of philosophy, both undergraduate and graduate.In view of the widespread contemporary interest in the topic of virtue, the volume should appeal to students of ethics (even those hitherto unacquainted with ancient thought) and to any reader who is concerned to see how fundamental questions of life and conduct were approached in a culture significantly different from our own. Review: Serious readers of the Nicomachean Ethics will certainly want to own this book. * Peter Aronoff * Christopher Taylor provides, for students and professionals alike, a helpfully close translation of, and much useful commentary on, the second, third, and fourth books of the Nicomachean Ethics .. . . a translation that eminently meets the goals of the Clarendon series: it is accurate, readable, and accompanied by a philosophically-oriented commentary . . . the commentary is a highly informed, often insightful, frequently illuminating guide . . . that will certainly repay close study, whatever one's prior level of expertise on Aristotle's ethics might be.. . . this is a volume I am very pleased to recommend, to specialists and non-specialists alike * Allan Gotthelf, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *