文章基本信息

标题：John Cooper’s Reason and Human Good in Aristotle
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作者：Fred D. Miller Jr.
期刊名称：Reason Papers : A Journal of Interdisciplinary Normative Studies
印刷版ISSN：0363-1893
出版年度：1978
卷号：4
出版社：Reason Papers
摘要：John M. Cooper's Reason and Human Good in Aristotle (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1975) is an important book and one that typifies thecurrent renaissancein thestudy of Greek philosophy. Cooper's thorough training in classical languages and textual criticism and his sensitivity to philosophical issues qualify him to attempt to work out "the over-all theory" behind Aristotle's separate treatments of happiness, virtue, moral intelligence. and so forth. "I have not hesitated to risk following out Aristotle's ideas considerably beyond the point at which conventional interpretations leave off." Cooper's technique is dialectical: in the course of articulating and assessing divergent lines of interpretation, he continually challenges Aristotle's assertions. For those regarding Aristotle as a live philosopher rather than a stuffed museum-piece or, worse, a fabrication out of scattered scraps of text, Cooper's book is exhilirating. In tearing away at the weak or questionable in Aristotle, he frequently uncovers hidden strengths. Even the reader who indignantly disagrees with Cooper is forced to rethink the issue on new levels. Of course, the virtues of the book do not recommend it to every reader, and beginners may find they do not possess the linguistic skills or the background in Aristotle and the secondary literature presupposed by Cooper. At the very least, the reader must always have copies of the Nicomachean Ethics and Eudemian Ethics close at hand.