Papers

    It is simplicity that makes the uneducated more effective than the educated when addressing popular audiences.

    - Aristotle, Rhetoric


     

  • Aristotle's writings for large audiences have been found only in fragments.
  • The remains are treatises which are believed to have been used for the school, forming the Corpus Aristotelicum; a version of his Constitution of Athens; some letters; and a few poems.
  • The texts of the treatises have problems.
    • There is language of a later date used in some that could not have been from Aristotle and others are of doubtful authenticity.
    • Even the works that are believed authentic show additions from later people.
    • The changes found in many of the texts cannot be determined to originate from Aristotle or from others.
  • The following classification of Aristotle's writings is observed:
    • (1) Logical writings - Categories, On Interpretation, Prior and Posterior Analytics, Topics, Sophistical Refutations

     
    • (2) Physical writings - Physics, On Generation and Corruption, On the Heavens, Meteorological, On the Soul, Parva Naturalia, History of Animals, Parts of Animals, Generation of Animals, Motion of Animals

     
    • (3) Metaphysics

     
    • (4) Ethical writings - Nicomachean Ethics, Eudemean Ethics, Magna Moralia, Politics

     
    • (5) Rhetoric, Poetics