Action and Contemplation: Studies in the Moral and Political Thought of Aristotle

by Robert C. Bartlett (Editor)

This wide-ranging collection of essays by European and American scholars presents some of the most interesting and important work now being done on the political philosophy of Aristotle. Part One investigates what is arguably the most urgent and controversial question of concern to students of Aristotle today, namely, the possibility of grounding moral and political action in some version of Aristotelian rationalism. Part Two considers a series of specific questions arising from the Politics and the Nicomachean Ethics, among which are Aristotle's understanding of moral virtue; the problem of evil; justice and the very idea of "common good"; friendship; the status of the philosophic life vis-à-vis the political; and the outlines of the best possible political community.

[Contributors include Wayne Ambler, Robert C. Bartlett, Ronald Beiner, Richard Bodéüs, David Bolotin, Hauke Brunkhorst, Eric Buzzetti, Susan D. Collins, Kent Enns, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Louis Hunt, Joseph Knippenberg, David K. O'Connor, Lorraine Smith Pangle, Judith A. Swanson, Aristide Tessitore, Franco Volpi, and Bernard Yack.]

Genres: Philosophy

350 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1999

About the author

Robert C. Bartlett is Behrakis Professor in Hellenic Political Studies at Boston College and has authored numerous studies on the history of political thought, including recent editions of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics (with Susan Collins) and the Art of Rhetoric.

Reviews

[Serge · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Collins and Gadamer essays on Aristotle stand out in this collection. I appreciated Chap 7's focus on the virtues and the discussion of courage, temperance, liberality, magnanimity, wittiness and irony. The font in my edition was smaller than ideal