to morality of the distinction of means and end For
this distinction, for all its plausibility and usefulness
in ordinary thought and speech, cannot finally be
maintained In morality—and this is vital
to its character—everything is both means
and end, and so neither in distinction or separation,
and all thinking about it which presupposes the finality
of this distinction wanders into misconception and
error. The thinking which really matters in conduct
is not a thinking which imaginatively forecasts ideals
which promise to fulfil desire, or calculates means
to their attainment—that is sometimes useful,
sometimes harmful, and always subordinate, but thinking
which reveals to the agent the situation in which
he is to act, both, that is, the universal situation
on which as man he always and everywhere stands, and
the ever-varying and ever-novel situation in which
he as this individual, here and now, finds himself.
In such knowledge of given or historic fact lie the
natural determinants of his conduct, in such knowledge
alone lies the condition of his freedom and his good.
But this does not mean that Moral Philosophy has not
still much to learn from Aristotle’s Ethics.
The work still remains one of the best introductions
to a study of its important subject-matter, it spreads
before us a view of the relevant facts, it reduces
them to manageable compass and order, it raises some
of the central problems, and makes acute and valuable
suggestions towards their solution. Above all,
it perpetually incites to renewed and independent
reflection upon them.
The following is a list of the works of
Aristotle:—
First edition of works (with omission
of Rhetorica, Poetica, and second book of Economica),
5 vols by Aldus Manutius, Venice, 1495 8, re impression
supervised by Erasmus and with certain corrections
by Grynaeus (including Rhetorica and Poetica), 1531,
1539, revised 1550, later editions were followed
by that of Immanuel Bekker and Brandis (Greek and
Latin), 5 vols. The 5th vol contains the Index
by Bomtz, 1831-70, Didot edition (Greek and Latin),
5 vols 1848 74
ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS Edited by T Taylor,
with Porphyry’s
Introduction, 9 vols, 1812, under editorship
of J A Smith and
W D Ross, II vols, 1908-31, Loeb editions
Ethica, Rhetorica,
Poetica, Physica, Politica, Metaphysica,
1926-33
Later editions of separate works
De Anima Torstrik, 1862, Trendelenburg,
2nd edition, 1877,
with English translation, L Wallace, 1882,
Biehl, 1884, 1896, with
English, R D Hicks, 1907
Ethica J S Brewer (Nicomachean), 1836, W E
Jelf, 1856, J F T Rogers, 1865, A Grant, 1857 8, 1866,
1874, 1885, E Moore, 1871, 1878, 4th edition, 1890,
Ramsauer (Nicomachean), 1878, Susemihl, 1878, 1880,
revised by O Apelt, 1903, A Grant, 1885, I Bywater
(Nicomachean), 1890, J Burnet, 1900
