Aristotle (Electronic book text)

In this excellent introduction, Christopher Shields introduces and assesses 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, Christopher 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 and the theory of categories and logical theory and his conception of the human being and soul and body. In the last part, he concentrates on Aristotle's value theory as applied to ethics and politics, and assesses his approach to happiness, virtues and the best life for human beings. He concludes with an appraisal of Aristotelianism today.