Aristotle on Truth

Rating:
Summary: A Marvelous Distillation
Review: In the opening words of the author, "The study of truth is a central part of the philosophical tradition we have inherited from classical Greece. Aristotle played an important role in developing and sharpening the debate in this area and on many issues that are connected with it."

But Aristotle's ideas on truth lie scattered among numerous works in a now dead tongue, while important interpretations of these ideas by successors sprawl over two millennia of secondary literature, in various languages.

Who on earth could identify, classify and distill such a body of knowledge for the benefit of serious students and the appreciation of the common man? Someone, one must presume, with a rare and eclectic mix of skills spanning philosophy, ancient languages, logic and history, and, equally significantly, someone with the stamina and perseverance to complete a marathon effort of this sort.

Such a rare person, apparently, is Mr. Paolo Crivelli. One can only imagine the many years, (decades?) of painstaking research mandated to accomplish the task, but indeed, it has been done. Mr. Crivelli, having shouldered the massive burden of all this hard work, including the daunting and danger-laden mission of bridging the barrier between ancient and modern languages, has now neatly and concisely delivered all the benefits on a silver platter, credibly and in superior form.

His efforts come framed with a stiff and proper academic backbone. Massively footnoted, triply indexed, multiply appendixed and listing hundreds of references, this work oozes with a sense of obsessive precision. The ordinary praise of "scholarly" is obviously just as insufficient as the maximum five stars Amazon allows. An extra little dose of pure and unfathomable magic conspires to make this book eminently readable.

Hat's off.