Read The Great Books

Aristotle’s book Metaphysics, captures the author’s thoughts on many of the great questions of the world. Aristotle being a well known philosopher of the ancient world, his writings have influenced western thought ever since.

Where his book Physics discusses the things making up the natural world, this book covers more immaterial ideas. Ranging from the basics of language all the way to the structures of common sense, this book is a good read for people of all different walks of life. Many people from writers, philosophers, and politicians have used Aristotle’s writing throughout history.

There’s a handful of good versions to pick from of this text. The Aristotelian Commentary text is a rather old option, although it was retouched in the mid 90’s. It does give the thoughts of St. Thomas Aquinas as well as the original text. For those with a historian mindset this may be of interest to you for the thoughts of two great minds in one book. For those whose main purpose is discourse on what Aristotle meant with his writings see the State University of New York’s copy. Written originally by Italian scholar Giovanni Reale, the author delves deep into a modern breakdown of the work. However, this is far from the best for those not interested in upper-level philosophy. The most well rounded version is Hackett Classics’. It proves to be a boon for those new to Aristotle or those already knowledgeable in philosophy. With a solid introduction and plenty of commentary to guide readers of all sorts.