Aristotle's "Exhortation to Philosophy" (Protrepticus Philosophias)

FAIN: FA-52268-06

Monte Ransome Johnson
St. Louis University (St. Louis, MO 63103-2097)

A lost work of Aristotle, his 'Protrepticus' ('Exhortation to Philosophy'), has been rediscovered. Among the most famous works of philosophy in antiquity, it survives mostly in the excerpts of a 3rd c. CE textbook by Iamblichus. Modern scholarship, begun in 1869 by Bywater and completed in 2005 by a colleague and me, has proven these excerpts to be faithful quotations from Aristotle; and this now supplies us with a solid basis for reconstructing the rest of the work. Our planned translation of 'Protrepticus', with introduction and commentary, will reintroduce the work into the Aristotelian canon, illuminate his philosophy for scholars and philosophers, and provide a welcome new tool for introducing students to Aristotle and to philosophy.

Associated Products

Protreptic Aspects of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics (Book Section)
Title: Protreptic Aspects of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics
Author: Monte Ransome Johnson
Author: D. S. Hutchinson
Editor: Ronald Polansky
Abstract: We hope to show that the overall protreptic plan of Aristotle's ethical writings is based on the plan he used in his published work Protrepticus (Exhortation to Philosophy), by highlighting those passages that primarily offer hortatory or protreptic motivation rather than dialectical argumentation and analysis, and by illustrating several ways that Aristotle adapts certain arguments and examples from his Protrepticus. In this essay we confine our attention to the books definitely attributable to the Nicomachean Ethics (thus excluding the common books).
Year: 2014
Primary URL: http://www.protrepticus.info/HutchinsonJohnson2014.pdf
Primary URL Description: Link to author offprint
Secondary URL: http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/philosophy/classical-philosophy/cambridge-companion-aristotles-nicomachean-ethics?format=HB&isbn=9780521192767
Secondary URL Description: Publisher website
Access Model: Author offprint
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Book Title: The Cambridge Companion to Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics
ISBN: 9780521192767

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