Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics
The Nicomachean Ethics is one of Aristotle’s most widely read and influential works.
Ideas central to ethics—that happiness is the end of human endeavor, that moral virtue is formed through action and habituation, and that good action requires prudence—found their most powerful proponent in the person medieval scholars simply called “the Philosopher.” Terence Irwin’s edition of the Nicomachean Ethics offers more aids to the reader than are found in any modern English translation.
It includes an Introduction, headings to help the reader follow the argument, explanatory notes on difficult or important passages, and a full glossary explaining Aristotle’s technical terms. The Third Edition offers additional revisions of the translation as well as revised and expanded versions of the notes, glossary, and Introduction.
Also new is an appendix featuring translated selections from related texts of Aristotle.
Aristotle, The Art of Rhetoric
For more than two thousand years Aristotle’s Art of Rhetoric has shaped the theory and practice of rhetoric, the art of persuasive speech.
In three sections, Aristotle discusses what rhetoric is, as well as the three kinds of rhetoric (deliberative, judicial, and epideictic), the three rhetorical modes of persuasion, and the diction, style, and necessary parts of a successful speech. Throughout, Aristotle defends rhetoric as an art and a crucial tool for deliberative politics while also recognizing its capacity to be misused by unscrupulous politicians to mislead or illegitimately persuade others.
The Bartlett translation offers a literal, yet easily readable, edition of Aristotle’s “Art of Rhetoric.” Bartlett’s translation is also accompanied by an outline of the argument of each book; copious indexes, including subjects, proper names, and literary citations; a glossary of key terms; and a substantial interpretive essay.
Plato, The Republic
Presented in the form of a dialogue between Socrates and three different interlocutors, The Republic is an inquiry into the notion of a perfect community and the ideal individual within it.
During the conversation other questions are raised: what is goodness; what is reality; what is knowledge? The Republic also addresses the purpose of education and the role of both women and men as “guardians” of the people. With remarkable lucidity and deft use of allegory, Plato arrives at a depiction of a state bound by harmony and ruled by “philosopher kings.”
Long regarded as the most accurate rendering of Plato’s Republic, this widely acclaimed translation by Allan Bloom was the first to take a strictly literal approach. In addition to the annotated text, there is also a rich and valuable essay — as well as indices –
Quintilian, Institutes of Oratory
This is the first single-volume English translation of the Institutio Oratoria, a treatise on all stages of the orator’s education that was written in Latin under the emperor Domitian (81–96 CE) by the Roman rhetorician and teacher Marcus Fabius Quintilianus, commonly known as Quintilian.
In the course of twelve books Quintilian discusses the education of young children, rhetorical theory (including discussion of invention of arguments, arrangement, style, memory, and performance), literary criticism and history, gesture, rhythm, the ethics of persuasion, and much more. It is a treatise that has had a profound influence on education from Late Antiquity through the Renaissance and into the present day.
Augustine, The City of God
Augustine’s The City of God is the first full-scale attempt at a Christian philosophy.
The work covers, among other topics, theodicy, civil and natural theology, the history of creation, philosophy of history, eschatology, and martyrdom.
One of the great cornerstones in the history of Christian philosophy, The City of God provides an insightful interpretation of the development of modern Western society and the origin of most Western thought. Contrasting earthly and heavenly cities–representing the omnipresent struggle between good and evil–Augustine explores human history in its relation to all eternity.
This Modern Library Paperback Classics edition is a complete and unabridged version of the Marcus Dods translatio
Comenius, The Great Didactic
The Great Didactic is commonly referred as the first great work of pedagogy.
John Comenius, a 17th century Czech (Moravian) educational reformer and religious leader, recommended learning from nature, outside school contexts. If a child is in a school, he argued that learning should extend beyond the classroom and take place in everyday life.
He systematized knowledge to make it more accessible and relevant to the children’s interests and life needs.
Comenius’s educational program is built upon a set of principles, many of which are based on how teaching methods should follow the rules of nature.
Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education
John Locke is most well known as an Enlightenment political philosopher. However, his work on education addressed to parents is so full of common-sense and traditional wisdom that it stands as an important contribution to the theory and practice of education.
This volume contains a helpful scholarly introduction and breaks out the text into its many subheadings and topics. It also includes the shorter work Of the Conduct of the Understanding. Lock draws from the great tradition of educators from Quintilian to Comenius and was an important source for later educators like Charlot