
Metaphysics
Reviews

Aristotle's Physics and Metaphysics are not easy books, but I think a fair amount of the difficulty readers have with them comes as much from lack of clarity in translation as from Aristotle's reasoning. The worst example is the "translation" of the Physics by Joe Sachs, which is thankfully avoided everywhere except St. John's College. It is not a translation into English, and it makes the elegant arguments of the Physics into a garbled mess. It's too bad because Sachs' essay about the Physics is great. But there is hope: the translations of Richard Hope. They are clear and readable, and he includes as an appendix to both his Physics and Metaphysics translations a helpful lexicon of Aristotle's key terms (including how they were rendered in Latin). They're also affordable paperbacks. For the love of Socrates, please avoid all translations other than Hope.
