Abstract

Editors display an amazing versatility in producing "new and different" series. While the selections in this volume on Plato and Aristotle present nothing novel, the series adds a new twist by concentrating on only two thinkers in each period. Volume One of a twelve-volume set offers two chapters introducing the times and the men. A third chapter contains selections from eight of Plato's dialogues ranging from the Apology to the Timaeus. Chapter four has usual selections from Aristotle. The concluding chapters make a bold attempt at novelty by presenting modern commentaries of Platonic and Aristotelian scholars. Unfortunately, these critiques are so severely edited that they may be beyond comprehension apart from the original work. What is most misleading, however, is the claim in the chapter introducing ancient philosophy that there are only two significant commentaries on Presocratic thought: John Burnet's Early Greek Philosophy, and Cornford's Principium Sapientiae.--J. J. R.