Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

Bartlett and Collins have penned what now must be considered the translation of choice into English of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics.

The best review I have so far read of it is "Code of the Gentleman" by Diana Schaub in The Claremont Review of Books.

There are so many felicities in their rethinking of how to translate Aristotle into English, and so many useful features such as footnotes (not tiresome endnotes), a glossary, interpretative essay, detailed indices etc., that the reader is brought closer to the text, and therefore to the meaning of the author, and not estranged from it by excessive pandering to the limitations of careless readers who do not like to have to think long and hard to get to the truth about things, especially naturally contentious human things like `morality'.

This translation surpasses those by Sachs, Broadie and Rowe, Irwin, Ostwald, and Ross (the superior literary, but not literal translation) which are still useful to consult especially for their critical apparatus and alternative readings of key terms.

Alas, certain significant words do not have footnotes or glossary entries, such as `inquiry/investigation' which they use to translate methodos - literally "the way after" or "the way towards" or "the way of proceeding" especially to the truth about the things human - philosophy. A detailed analytical outline would have been helpful. And, perhaps the size of the font could have been a bit larger in kindness to older eyes.

This translation is also the superior twin to Carnes Lord's translation of "Aristotle The Politics" from the same stable, The University of Chicago Press.

The other most useful pair of literal translations of Aristotle's "philosophy of things human" would be Joe Sachs, "Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics" and Peter L. Phillips Simpson's, "The Politics of Aristotle". The appendix to the Politics is the "Poetics" of which Seth Benardete's translation is the superior literal and scholarly translation, perhaps followed by Joe Sachs. The other work in Aristotle's quartet (or trilogy if one accepts the Poetics as a form of appendix to the Politics) is the "Rhetoric" which is literally translated by George Kennedy and also by Joe Sachs.

ARISTOTLE'S NICOMACHEAN ETHICS includes an introduction, a note on the translation, a bibliography of works consulted, an outline of the text, the new translation by Robert C. Bartlett of Boston College and Susan D. Collins of the University of Houston, learned footnotes at the foot of the pages of the text, a lengthy interpretive essay, an overview of the moral virtues and vices, an English-Greek glossary, a listing of key Greek terms and brief translations of each, an index of proper names, and a general index. Apart from possibly giving the Greek text on one page and the English translation on the facing page, what more could you want?

Because we Americans celebrate the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, I should mention that Aristotle discussed happiness in detail in his NICOMACHEAN ETHICS centuries before the pursuit of happiness was mentioned in the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.

In his 1961 inaugural address President John F. Kennedy famously urged Americans not to ask what their country can do for them but what they can do for their country. In this way, he urged the American citizens to be the aristocrats for their country. At one point in their interpretive essay, Bartlett (born 1964) and Collins (born 1960) seems to echo President Kennedy's wording when they say that "justice and friendship are said to exist also to the extent to which each member seeks not or not only his own advantage but also the advantage of the community as a whole" (page 290).

The lengthy interpretive essay (pages 237-302) is accessible and informative. But I do have an admittedly small objection to one paragraph (pages 257-258). Bartlett and Collins start the paragraph by saying that they are going "to speak now more explicitly than Aristotle does" about a certain difficulty they see with maintaining that in the case of courage the same action is both noble and good. On the one hand, I suspect that Aristotle does not speak more explicitly about this matter because he understands the warrior's heroic code. On the other hand, I suspect that Bartlett and Collins do not understand the warrior's heroic code because they have been habituated to the anti-hero in modern literature.

Later on (pages 292-293), however, Bartlett and Collins supply a paragraph that answers the difficulty they saw earlier but that Aristotle had not spoken about in the earlier text. They point out that "the serious man is a self-lover, [and] his noble action contributes to the good of another and the common good. His preference for noble action over all other goods explains his extraordinary choice in certain circumstances even to forsake his life in behalf of his friends or city; it explains, as well, his preference `to feel pleasure intensely for a short time over feeling it mildly for a long time, to live nobly for one year over living in a haphazard way for many years, and to do one great and noble action over many small ones' (1169a22-25). His noble action thus makes him a good friend and citizen, even though he is a self-lover in this way and not as the many are."

In any event, Aristotle's NICOMACHEAN ETHICS is one of the most thought-provoking works ever written, and Bartlett and Collins have provided us with a fine translation of it.

Dr. Bartlett and Dr. Collins have created what can only be the penultimate academic translation of this work. In their opening essay, they discuss taking Aristotle seriously as a thinker, something rarely done today. Aristotle is frequently written off as a curiosity of the ancient and medieval world, containing metaphysical conceptions of the good and politics that have become outmoded by modern thinkers. Besides committing an obvious logical fallacy (that which is old must be incorrect), this type of thinking ignores the irreplaceable role that Aristotle has played in the formation of the political, philosophical, and even religious thinking that has formed so much of the modern world. Collins and Bartlett make very clear in their interpretive essay that they intend to take Aristotle seriously as a thinker, and it shows in how carefully they have organized and structured their translation.

Those who have studied ancient Greek know that it is a horrible language to translate into English. Besides its characteristic terseness, so much of its vocabulary contains specific connotations that don't carry over well into analogous English words. Collins and Bartlett are very cognizant of this problem, and have taken steps to remedy it, or make the reader aware of the connotations. This is why you may stumble across odd words or detailed footnotes in the process of reading the Collins and Bartlett translation. If you want to attain a real understanding of Aristotle, and you don't want to spend years of your life learning Ancient Greek to do so, this is the tool you need.

It is tempting to write off Aristotle. To do what many universities do nowadays, and buy cheap simple translations that are easy to read, to give students a spurious understanding of The Philosopher tagged with the notion that he isn't important or relevant anymore. But if you want to understand him, if you want to take on Aristotle as a serious project, if you want to discover why he has been beloved and valued for thousands of years, this is the version you need. The Nichomachean Ethics has been poorly translated for years; it's a relief that the world now has a good English translation.