Description:
This volume features a unique epitome of Aristotelian practical philosophy. It is often attributed to Arius Didymus who composed a survey of Peripatetic on three areas: ethics, household management, and politics. The quality of the epitome, which draws not only on the surviving treatises of Aristotle, but also later Peripatetics, is excellent.
Review Quotes:
This volume is a welcome contribution to the study of Arius Didymus' challenging compendium of Hellenistic ethics and only the second study to focus on this work since 1981. It offers a new edition of 'section C' on Peripatetic ethics, a discussion of the author's identity, and a well-selected set of aspects examined by experts in the field, exploring various themes and connections with Aristotle's works, ethical concepts such as virtue, the worth of others, external goods and types of life. The volume closes with a masterful essay in which Seneca's Letter 85 is used as indirect evidence for Peripatetic ethics in the first century. While not all questions on this work can be resolved, this volume certainly assists in a more detailed understanding of the complexities, questions and transmission of Peripatetic ethics in the early Empire.
- Han Baltussen, University of Adelaide, Australia