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A review by adamcaguirre
Aristotle's Way: How Ancient Wisdom Can Change Your Life by Edith Hall
4.0
It's perhaps the most pretentious thing I've ever said (and I've said it a lot), but Aristotle is not my favorite.
He's still not my favorite, but I think Edith Hall's book did open my mind to possibilities I had turned from in the past. My issue with Aristotle was his looking down upon women and his acceptance of slavery as an institution (and yes, I'm aware that slavery was a common cultural practice circa 330 BCE). Hall does provide some evidence that Aristotle was open to, nearly thinking it necessary, to revise one's thinking and to allow incontrovertible evidence to work on one's intellect. That said, I do feel like Aristotle as a naturalist could probably have arrived at a conclusion other than "women are subservient to men" given their constitution.
What I so enjoyed about this book is how Edith Hall makes philosophy engaging and worthy of modern contemplation. Of course while philosophy departments in universities and colleges are very much alive, public discourse and shared reverence for deliberation not so much. Hall uses Aristotle as a lens through which to look at and examine aspects of modern life - which the reader, no doubt, comes to identify as issues that concern individuals of all time periods. In particular, I appreciated Hall's inclusion of "Leisure" as an incredibly important aspect of life to examine. How we spend our time outside of "physical survival" (or in modern parlance, "work") is incredibly important to the civic health of our communities. Investments in socializing programs that fall outside of the purview of basic human services are important, and indeed, necessary to create a society in which all people have the opportunity to Lead a Good Life.
If nothing else, this book will bring you back to discussions of philosophy one might have had while in college. It made me intellectually thirsty and inspired me to jot down philosophers and thinkers I hadn't thought about it in year - Kant, Mill, and even Henry Sidgwick (about whom I took an advanced seminar with a friend in college - a semester that ended, to my understanding, with the understanding that when you are looking to make ethically sound choices, it's really hard and there aren't really easy solutions).
Give it a whirl. Maybe, if you're lucky, it will inspire you to pick up an old classic.
He's still not my favorite, but I think Edith Hall's book did open my mind to possibilities I had turned from in the past. My issue with Aristotle was his looking down upon women and his acceptance of slavery as an institution (and yes, I'm aware that slavery was a common cultural practice circa 330 BCE). Hall does provide some evidence that Aristotle was open to, nearly thinking it necessary, to revise one's thinking and to allow incontrovertible evidence to work on one's intellect. That said, I do feel like Aristotle as a naturalist could probably have arrived at a conclusion other than "women are subservient to men" given their constitution.
What I so enjoyed about this book is how Edith Hall makes philosophy engaging and worthy of modern contemplation. Of course while philosophy departments in universities and colleges are very much alive, public discourse and shared reverence for deliberation not so much. Hall uses Aristotle as a lens through which to look at and examine aspects of modern life - which the reader, no doubt, comes to identify as issues that concern individuals of all time periods. In particular, I appreciated Hall's inclusion of "Leisure" as an incredibly important aspect of life to examine. How we spend our time outside of "physical survival" (or in modern parlance, "work") is incredibly important to the civic health of our communities. Investments in socializing programs that fall outside of the purview of basic human services are important, and indeed, necessary to create a society in which all people have the opportunity to Lead a Good Life.
If nothing else, this book will bring you back to discussions of philosophy one might have had while in college. It made me intellectually thirsty and inspired me to jot down philosophers and thinkers I hadn't thought about it in year - Kant, Mill, and even Henry Sidgwick (about whom I took an advanced seminar with a friend in college - a semester that ended, to my understanding, with the understanding that when you are looking to make ethically sound choices, it's really hard and there aren't really easy solutions).
Give it a whirl. Maybe, if you're lucky, it will inspire you to pick up an old classic.