Aristotle

Having read the Darwin and Liebniz editions of the Routledge Philosophers series I thought it was the appropriate time to tackle one of the early giants. I'll leave it to the Aristotle scholars to discuss how well Shields has interpreted Aristotle's body of work, relative to other introductory books. But as a philosophical novice, I have thoroughly enjoyed this introduction to Aristotle's life and thought. Shields has done a masterful job of situating Aristotle's various writings with respect to his overall body of work. I was surprised to learn how much of Aristotle's thinking was informed by the natural sciences, especially Biology. Modern taxonomists, especially those, like myself, who use genetic methods to explore biological diversity are still grappling with issues that Aristotle contemplated (what is species?). We would all do well to approach these problems with the sophistication of Aristotle and the clarity of Shields. My only quibble is that the editing is somewhat sloppy. There is nothing like being confused by an argument only to realize that a word or phrase has been poorly edited!