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Aristotle for Everybody or Difficult Thought Made Easy
by Mortimer J. Adler
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Scribner (1978-05-01)
ISBN: 0025031007
EAN: 9780025031005
Paperback: 228 pages
SKU: 07060082
Condition: Very Good As issued
Comments: Paperback. Like new condition with no markings and no creases to spine or cover. Very slight wear to cover. Some yellowing - else like new. Near fine copy.
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Customer Reviews
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Geared to the Young Reader
Rating  (2)
Date: 2006-03-17
4 out of 4 customers found this reveiw helpful
Aristotle for Everybody is a brief introduction to Aristotle aimed at the young reader. Its target audience is probably the inquisitive student in the 12-14 range who is seeking an overview of Aristotelian thought.
I accidentally picked up this book after glancing at a couple of the reviews on this site. I was about to re-read some Aristotle and was seeking to re-acquaint myself with his particular style and language. This is definitely not the book for this purpose.
Adler's text is clearly geared to the young reader who has not been introduced to philosophy. I do not mean this to be disrespectful but to help oher readers avoid by mistake. Adler, himself notes in the introduction that his initial thought was to title the work Aristotle for Children. Indeed for the young reader this may not be an inappropriate mechanism for introducing Aristotle.
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Aristotle-Everybody's philosopher
Rating  (5)
Date: 2006-03-12
1 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
Mortimer Adler is one of my favorite philosophers because; he can take complex philosophical ideas and make them understandable for the non-philosopher. This is a great skill that few philosophers posses and one of the reasons why ordinary people do not read philosophy. In this book, Adler distills Aristotle's thoughts on metaphysics, ethics, and political philosophy. My major interest is in political philosophy, how do humans create a better society to live in? Aristotle builds a case for the need all of us to strive to live the "good life." A few of Aristotle's quotes are in order to delineate his thinking. "That which is really `good' for us is something we always ought to desire because we need it." "A good life is one that has been lived by making morally virtuous choices or decisions." Aristotle was the first philosopher to label man as "a social animal." "Human beings can not live well or achieve the best lives for themselves, by living well or achieve the best lives for themselves, by living together in families and tribes." To achieve this "good life" we must live in states. So, what is the best state? The best state provides a guarantee of freedoms, less economic regulation, provide a safety net for people with bad luck, provide a good education so that we can be trained to make us morally virtuous citizens.
I cannot sing Adler's praises enough; he does a great job of simplifying Aristotle's concepts. A great beginning book on philosophy, which delves into the teachings of the most brilliant person in history.
As a retired Army officer and student of political philosophy, I found this to be a great book to continue one's journey into political philosophy.
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Deciphering the undecipherable
Rating (5)
Date: 2002-04-16
3 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
Here is a book that is an excellent companion to any introductory philosophy course, to help the student untangle the elliptical arguments of the venerable Aristotle. The author explains in plain English, with concrete everyday examples, some of Aristotle's basic concepts. Read this book first and then tackle Aristotle. This book also makes for good reading on its own.
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