One of the reasons I’ve been mostly silent this year is that I’ve been doing a great deal of theological and philosophical pondering, a state I expect to continue for some time. (The extent to which any of said pondering will appear here is as yet undetermined.) But as part of it I’ve been beginning to look at Thomas Aquinas; and to understand Thomas Aquinas, it was recommended that I understand a little about Aristotle. And in particular, it was recommended that this book was a good introduction to Aristotle for dumm–well, say, for the complete id–well, anyway, it’s a good introduction to Aristotle. So I got, and read it, and re-read it, and studied it thoroughly.

The book is both lucid and helpful, explaining clearly the notions of the good, the true, and the beautiful, of matter and form, of the four causes (efficient, material, formal, and final), and so forth; to that extent, it’s just what I was looking for. Having finished it, I’ve stepped into the pool of Aristotle’s own writing–and the water is swirling about my nose, and I’ve not even reach the bottom of the shallow end. I’m maybe on the first or second step down.

In short, I liked this book; now I’d like something to take me further. The same source that recommended this book for beginners also recommended Sir David Ross’s Aristotle for the intermediate reader of philosophy; but having looked into it I can see that Ross’s book assumes a considerable quantity of background knowledge that I don’t yet have. If anyone can suggest something in between the two, say, Aristotle for the Reasonably Smart Novice, I’d appreciate it.