Abstract

In this excellent book, drawing on previously published articles, George Duke gathers the scattered threads of Aristotle's discussions of law while defending clear stances in the various philosophical debates they have engendered. The book works within Aristotelian methodology and metaphysics, developing the view that a politeia should be understood as a formal cause that is worked out in terms of the successive definitions offered in book III of Politics. Building on studies of the evolution of the meaning of nomos and making occasional reference to Greek legal history and practice, primarily in Athens, it treats what I see as three themes, spread across seven chapters.In chapters 1 and 2, Duke addresses the...