The Digital Renaissance: Review: Aristotle Collection: Nicomachean Ethics, Politics, Rhetoric, Poetics

Tuesday, October 18, 2022

Review: Aristotle Collection: Nicomachean Ethics, Politics, Rhetoric, Poetics

Aristotle Collection: Nicomachean Ethics, Politics, Rhetoric, Poetics by Aristotle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An ambitious project to record four (4) of Aristotle’s more famous works, at just under 28 hours … the narrator gets another star despite being fairly typically for an academic work (no voices, limited inflection, etc.). The collection includes something of an Introduction to Aristotle that is helpful in understanding the work as follows. The books themselves are fairly typical for philosophical treatises … in other words, overly wordy and obtuse at places. Still, these specific works are foundational classics in Western moral thought, so it is important to have at least a passing familiarity with them (and unless you are doing a deep dive, an audiobook is a lot less painful).

There is also a fairly problematic world view that was unremarkable in his time, but not really acceptable now (e.g. master slave relationships) … which I more or less tried to not judge too harshly, but failed for most of the Politics discourse. As I am also studying [Christian] moral theology, I found it extremely interesting at how Much of Aristotle is echoed there (some cases nearly word for word). On the other hand … based on his politics, I ain’t voting for him ever [yea I know, he is a product of his times …I’m still not voting for him]. For example … when discussing the tyrant, I found myself nodding my head as Aristotle describes the characteristics until we get to this gem … that tyrants obviously give freedoms to women and slaves so that they can inform on their master or husband since they will not conspire against the tyrant …. ah … what? Yeah … his view about socio-economic status can be a trigger for some folks. Still … there is a lot of good stuff in there as well.

Ethics - Books 1-10 [****]

- Book I: Introductions, Definitions and the Goal of Ethics

- Book II: Character

- Book III: Courage and Temperance

- Book IV: Other Moral Virtues

- Book V: Justice and Fairness

- Book VI: Intellect

- Book VII: Impediments

- Book VIII: Friendship

- Book IX: Friendship (cont)

- Book X: Pleasure and Happiness

Politics - Books 1-8 [***]

- Book I: The City

- Book II: The Nation/Regime

- Book III: Citizens and Monarchies

- Book IV: Democracies and Oligarchies

- Book V: Constitutional Change and Revolutions

- Book VI: Democratic/Oligarchic Constitutions

- Book VII: Welfare

- Book VIII: Education

Rhetoric - Books 1-3 [****]

- Book I: Definition and Purpose of Rhetoric in 14 chapters

- Book II: Public Speaking in 26 chapters

- Book III: Rhetorical Style in 19 chapters

Poetics [****]

- Tragedy

- Epic

- Comedy [Lost/Missing]

I was given this free advance listener copy (ALC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#AristoleCollection #AudibookFree

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My Ratings Explained ...

[ ***** ] Amazing Read - Perfect story, exciting, engrossing, well developed complex characters, solid plot with few to no holes, descriptive environments and place settings, great mystery elements, realistic dialogue, believable reactions and behaviors; a favorite that I can re-read many times.
[ **** ] Great Read - Highly entertaining and enjoyable, exciting storyline, well developed characters and settings, a few discrepancies but nothing that can’t be overlooked. Some aspect of the story was new/refreshing to me and/or intriguing. Recommended for everyone.
[ *** ] Good Read - Solid story with a 'good' ending, or has some other redeeming feature. Limited character development and/or over reliance on tropes. Noticeable discrepancies in world building and/or dialog/behavior that were distracting. I connected enough with the characters/world to read the entire series. Most of the books I read for fun are here. Recommended for fans of the genre.
[ ** ] Okay Read - Suitable for a brief, afternoon escape … flat or shallow characters with little to no development. Over the top character dialog and/or behavior. Poor world building with significant issues and/or mistakes indicating poor research. Excessive use of trivial detail, info dumps and/or pontification. Any issues with the story/characters are offset by some other aspect that I enjoyed. Not very memorable. May only appeal to a niche group of readers. Recommended for some (YMMV).
[ * ] Bad Read - Awkward and/or confusing writing style. Poor world building and/or unbelievable (or unlikeable) characters. Victimization, gaslighting, blatant abuse, unnecessary violence, child endangerment, or any other highly objectionable behaviors by Main characters. I didn't connect with the story at all; significant aspects of this story irritated me enough that I struggled to finished it. Series was abandoned. Not recommended.