Ancient Philosophy
Aristotle on Friendship: What Books VIII–IX of the Nicomachean Ethics Actually Argue
Friendship is not a pleasant appendix to Aristotle’s ethics. It is where virtue, justice, self-love and political life meet.
Entering Plato: A Five-Book Path from Socrates to Knowledge
Where to Start with Plato is less a question of chronology than of learning how his dialogues work. Begin with…
The Still Point in Book Lambda: Locating Aristotle’s Unmoved Mover
The doctrine called Aristotle’s “unmoved mover” is not a separate essay. Where to Read Aristotle’s Unmoved Mover is chiefly Metaphysics…
Before the Cave: What Plato’s Republic Expects You to Know
Background for Reading Plato’s Republic is less a syllabus than a set of bearings: the Socratic manner of inquiry, the…
Aristotle’s Function Argument, Precisely Located
Aristotle’s “Function Argument” is not a separate essay. It is the modern name for a passage in Nicomachean Ethics I.7,…
Aristotle’s Four Causes, Precisely Located: Physics II.3 and the Editions That Matter
Aristotle sets out the four kinds of cause in Physics Book II, chapter 3, at 194b16–195b30; the compact fourfold enumeration…
Happiness Is a Public Practice: Rereading the Nicomachean Ethics
Estimated reading time: about 19 minutes A serious Nicomachean Ethics interpretation has to begin by discarding two reassuring reductions: that…
The Mean in Its Proper Place: Aristotle’s Doctrine in Book II
The “Doctrine of the Mean” is not a separate Aristotelian essay. The Doctrine of the Mean in Nicomachean Ethics is…
