Aristotle

George Grote's study of Aristotle is a searching, scholarly attempt to carry his history of Greek thought from Plato to its great successor, and the result is a rich, unfinished monument to ancient philosophy. Edited by Alexander Bain and G. Croom Robertson, the volume opens with Aristotle's life and origins in Stageira, his physician father Nikomachus, and the debate over his early years, then moves through logic, natural philosophy, and metaphysics, with later essays on ethics, politics, universals, and first principles deepening the argument. Grote presents Aristotle as heir to the Socratic and Platonic tradition yet also as a thinker shaped by observation, dialectic, and the practical world of Greek medicine. The book examines the Organon, the Topica, the De Anima, and related treatises, while the appended abstracts of the Metaphysica and De Cœlo, along with sketches of Epicurus and the Stoics, extend the larger philosophical survey. Throughout, Grote challenges Platonic realism, revisits Aristotle's doctrine of happiness, virtue, justice, and equity, and offers a sustained defense of clear definition, disciplined questioning, and rigorous debate. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.