Table Of ContentAristotle: A Very Short Introduction
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Very Short Introductions available now:
ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY Continental Philosophy
Julia Annas Simon Critchley
THE ANGLO-SAXON AGE COSMOLOGY Peter Coles
John Blair CRYPTOGRAPHY
ANIMAL RIGHTS David DeGrazia Fred Piper and Sean Murphy
ARCHAEOLOGY Paul Bahn DADA AND SURREALISM
ARCHITECTURE David Hopkins
Andrew Ballantyne Darwin Jonathan Howard
ARISTOTLE Jonathan Barnes Democracy Bernard Crick
ART HISTORY Dana Arnold DESCARTES Tom Sorell
ART THEORY Cynthia Freeland DRUGS Leslie Iversen
THE HISTORY OF THE EARTH Martin Redfern
ASTRONOMY Michael Hoskin EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY
Atheism Julian Baggini Geraldine Pinch
Augustine Henry Chadwick EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY
BARTHES Jonathan Culler BRITAIN Paul Langford
THE BIBLE John Riches THE ELEMENTS Philip Ball
BRITISH POLITICS EMOTION Dylan Evans
Anthony Wright EMPIRE Stephen Howe
Buddha Michael Carrithers ENGELS Terrell Carver
BUDDHISM Damien Keown Ethics Simon Blackburn
CAPITALISM James Fulcher The European Union
THE CELTS Barry Cunliffe John Pinder
CHOICE THEORY EVOLUTION
Michael Allingham Brian and Deborah Charlesworth
CHRISTIAN ART Beth Williamson FASCISM Kevin Passmore
CLASSICS Mary Beard and THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
John Henderson William Doyle
CLAUSEWITZ Michael Howard Freud Anthony Storr
THE COLD WAR Galileo Stillman Drake
Robert McMahon Gandhi Bhikhu Parekh
GLOBALIZATION paul E. P. Sanders
Manfred Steger Philosophy Edward Craig
HEGEL Peter Singer PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
HEIDEGGER Michael Inwood Samir Okasha
HINDUISM Kim Knott PLATO Julia Annas
HISTORY John H. Arnold POLITICS Kenneth Minogue
HOBBES Richard Tuck POSTCOLONIALISM
HUME A. J. Ayer Robert Young
IDEOLOGY Michael Freeden POSTMODERNISM
Indian Philosophy Christopher Butler
Sue Hamilton POSTSTRUCTURALISM
Intelligence Ian J. Deary Catherine Belsey
ISLAM Malise Ruthven PREHISTORY Chris Gosden
JUDAISM Norman Solomon PRESOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY
Jung Anthony Stevens Catherine Osborne
KANT Roger Scruton Psychology Gillian Butler and
KIERKEGAARD Freda McManus
Patrick Gardiner QUANTUM THEORY
THE KORAN Michael Cook John Polkinghorne
LINGUISTICS Peter Matthews ROMAN BRITAIN
LITERARY THEORY Peter Salway
Jonathan Culler ROUSSEAU Robert Wokler
LOCKE John Dunn RUSSELL A. C. Grayling
LOGIC Graham Priest RUSSIAN LITERATURE
MACHIAVELLI Catriona Kelly
Quentin Skinner THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION
MARX Peter Singer S. A. Smith
MATHEMATICS SCHIZOPHRENIA
Timothy Gowers Chris Frith and Eve Johnstone
MEDIEVAL BRITAIN SCHOPENHAUER
John Gillingham and Christopher Janaway
Ralph A. Griffiths SHAKESPEARE Germaine Greer
MODERN IRELAND SOCIAL AND CULTURAL
Senia Pasˇeta ANTHROPOLOGY
MOLECULES Philip Ball John Monaghan and Peter Just
MUSIC Nicholas Cook SOCIOLOGY Steve Bruce
NIETZSCHE Michael Tanner Socrates C. C. W. Taylor
NINETEENTH-CENTURY SPINOZA Roger Scruton
BRITAIN Christopher Harvie and STUART BRITAIN
H. C. G. Matthew John Morrill
NORTHERN IRELAND TERRORISM Charles Townshend
Marc Mulholland THEOLOGY David F. Ford
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THE TUDORS John Guy FUNDAMENTALISM
TWENTIETH-CENTURY Malise Ruthven
BRITAIN Kenneth O. Morgan Habermas Gordon Finlayson
Wittgenstein A. C. Grayling HIEROGLYPHS
WORLD MUSIC Philip Bohlman Penelope Wilson
AFRICAN HISTORY HIROSHIMA B. R. Tomlinson
John Parker and Richard Rathbone HUMAN EVOLUTION
ANCIENT EGYPT Ian Shaw Bernard Wood
THE BRAIN Michael O’Shea INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
BUDDHIST ETHICS Paul Wilkinson
Damien Keown JAZZ Brian Morton
CHAOS Leonard Smith MANDELA Tom Lodge
CHRISTIANITY Linda Woodhead MEDICAL ETHICS
CITIZENSHIP Richard Bellamy Tony Hope
CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE THE MIND Martin Davies
Robert Tavernor Myth Robert Segal
CLONING Arlene Judith Klotzko NATIONALISM Steven Grosby
CONTEMPORARY ART PERCEPTION Richard Gregory
Julian Stallabrass PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION
THE CRUSADES Jack Copeland and Diane Proudfoot
Christopher Tyerman PHOTOGRAPHY Steve Edwards
Derrida Simon Glendinning THE RAJ Denis Judd
DESIGN John Heskett THE RENAISSANCE
Dinosaurs David Norman Jerry Brotton
DREAMING J. Allan Hobson RENAISSANCE ART
ECONOMICS Partha Dasgupta Geraldine Johnson
THE END OF THE WORLD SARTRE Christina Howells
Bill McGuire THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR
EXISTENTIALISM Thomas Flynn Helen Graham
THE FIRST WORLD WAR TRAGEDY Adrian Poole
Michael Howard THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
FREE WILL Thomas Pink Martin Conway
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Jonathan Barnes
ARISTOTLE
A Very Short Introduction
1
For Richard Robinson
3
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp
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Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press
in the UK and in certain other countries
Published in the United States
by Oxford University Press Inc., New York
© Jonathan Barnes 2000
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
Database right Oxford University Press (maker)
First published 1982 as an Oxford University Press paperback
Reissued 1996
Revised and published as a Very Short Introduction 2000
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press,
or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate
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Oxford University Press, at the address above
You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Data available
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Data available
ISBN 0–19–285408–9
7 9 10 8
Typeset by RefineCatch Ltd, Bungay, Suffolk
Printed in Great Britain by
TJ International Ltd., Padstow, Cornwall
Contents
List of Illustrations ix
List of Maps xii
1
The Man and His Work 1
2
A Public Figure 7
3
Zoological Researches 14
4
Collecting Facts 24
5
The Philosophical Background 30
6
The Structure of the Sciences 39
7
Logic 46
8
Knowledge 53
9
Ideal and Achievement 59
10
Reality 64
11
Change 75
12
Causes 83
13
Empiricism 92
14
Aristotle’s World-Picture 97
15
Psychology 105
16
Evidence and Theory 110
17
Teleology 116
18
Practical Philosophy 123
19
The Arts 131
20
Afterlife 136
References 143
Chronological Table 151
Further Reading 153
Index 157
List of Illustrations
1 Bust of Aristotle: a copy of 5 A teacher and pupils: a
believed to have been relief from the second
commissioned by century ad 27
Alexander the Great 2
6 A mosaic from Pompeii,
Courtesy of Alinari
made in about 100 bc,
2 Page from a medieval showing Plato’s
manuscript showing Academy 32
Aristotle as tutor to the Courtesy of Alinari
young Alexander 10
7 Head of Plato 36
© Archivo Iconografico, S.A./Corbis
Courtesy of the Fitzwilliam Musem,
3 Parts of the later city wall of Cambridge
Assos, where Aristotle and
8 Illustration of the Tree of
his companions spent their
Knowledge from a
time in philosophical
scholastic textbook of the
discussion 15
Renaissance 44
© Ruggero Vanni/Corbis
Courtesy of the American
4 Engraving of Theophrastus, Philosophical Society
Aristotle’s pupil, colleague,
9 Manuscript written by the
and intellectual heir 17
monk Ephraim in
Courtesy of Hulton Getty
November 954 48
Reproduced from R. Barbour, Greek
Literary Hands
