Reading group for Aristotle's The Organon

[Eiuol]

Soon I will be reading the entirety of the Organon, or more generally all the books within this one about reasoning and demonstration. I say reading group because my intent is to focus on Aristotle's writing without bringing much outside interpretation. I have enough background on Aristotle and Oism to guide reading discussions in a productive way. Not simply to understand what Aristotle said, but to integrate it all with furthering my study of other fields which for me are mostly psychology and neuroscience. If you have a different academic interest, like history or economics, that's even better, because we could apply the ideas to more contexts.

So, post here or send me a private message if you would like to join in. Weekly meetings would go well, we can work out how many chapters to read each time. Probably one hour meetings. I don't expect us all to have the same translation. Sometimes, different translations can be useful.

Secondly, does anyone have suggestions for which translations to use?

[2046]

Have you considered doing it on Clubhouse?

[Eiuol]

I've never used that, do you suggest it? I'm only asking here because I just want some of the Oist perspective, as well as anybody who reads but doesn't post much here. And anyone else.

[William O]

Aquinas' commentaries on Aristotle are available in print and online. I do not know whether the online editions are made available legally or illegally, and I don't have time to check right now. I have a few in paperback, and I have found them helpful and insightful.

[Eiuol]

Update. 3 people total interested so far. Also let me know if you don't have time but want to attend when you have the time off and on. I plan to start with one or 2 more people.

[Boydstun]

Eiuol,

The translations in The Complete Works of Aristotle (Barnes 1984) are evidently the most well-known by modern readers. It has by now made its way into a lot of personal libraries.

In reading the parts of ORGANON of interest to you, sooner or later one can also have the companions in Blackwell’s A Companion to Aristotle (2009) in:

Chapter 3 - Deductive Logic

Chapter 4 - Aristotle’s Theory of Demonstration

Chapter 5 - Empiricism and the First Principles of Aristotelian Science

Chapter 6 - Aristotle on Signification and Truth

(Sometimes there are line-by-line modern companions as well, in the Clarendon and in the Oxford Aristotle Series, but for only some of the works in ORGANON. For my current writing projects, I’ve been several days and will be a good many more with Clarendon’s Aristotle - Metaphysics Book Λ.)

I think, from your description of your interest in this pursuit, Eiuol, that these Blackwell chapters are at the right closeness to Aristotle’s text and are the right sectors within Aristotle’s text to be helpful, supposing you’ve not already gotten acquainted with those companions.

Edited June 13, 2021 by Boydstun