Aristotle (2^nd Ed.) The Routledge Philosophers Series

In this extensively revised new edition of his excellent guidebook, Christopher Shields introduces the whole of Aristotle?s philosophy, showing how his powerful conception of human nature shaped much of his thinking on the nature of the soul and the mind, ethics, politics, and the arts.

Beginning with a brief biography, Shields carefully explains the fundamental elements of Aristotle?s thought: his explanatory framework, his philosophical methodology, and his four-causal explanatory scheme. Subsequently he discusses Aristotle?s metaphysics, the theory of categories, logical theory, and his conception of the human being as a composite of soul and body.

The last part concentrates on Aristotle?s value theory as applied to ethics and politics, and assesses his approach to happiness, virtue, and the best life for human beings, before turning to a consideration of Aristotle's theory of rhetoric and the arts, with a special focus on his perennially controversial treatment of tragedy.

This second edition includes an expanded discussion of Aristotle's method, and new sections on key issues in perception, thought, akrasia, and mimesis. It concludes with an expanded assessment of Aristotle's legacy, sketching currently emerging Neo-Aristotelian movements in metaphysics and virtue ethics.

Life and Works 1. Explaining Nature and the Nature of Explanation 2. Thinking 3. Aristotle’s Early Ontology 4. Puzzles of Nature 5. Substance and the Science of Being qua Being 6. Living Beings 7. Living Well 8. Political AssociationRhetoric and the Arts 9. Aristotle’s Legacy. Index

Christopher Shields is Shuster Professor of Philosophy and Concurrent Professor of Classics at the University of Notre Dame, USA. His books include Order in Multiplicity: Homonymy in the Philosophyof Aristotle (1999), Ancient Philosophy: A Contemporary Introduction (Routledge, 2011), and (with Robert Pasnau) The Philosophy ofThomas Aquinas (2003). He served as editor of TheBlackwell Guide to Ancient Philosophy (2002), and TheOxford Handbook on Aristotle (2012).