On Reading Aristotle

Currently I am reading his Metaphysics. To put it bluntly, it's a bitch. It's every bit as hard as the Physics and then some. But we only have two seminars on it and I want both of them to count. This means I want to understand the readings as well as possible. They are rather short, which makes this possible, but very difficult, doubly so because I have not been doing this all along. But that is in the past and learning to read is what freshman year is all about at St. John's.

It basically means spending five or ten minutes on each page, going over the arguments again and again. Aristotle writes very elliptically and never minces words or repeats himself. If he says it once (women are inferior, Politics) he expects you to remember and rarely elaborates. Sometimes his work seems almost fragmentary in the sense of my wanting him to pursue the dialectic further. Since he doesn't do this, we are left with nothing but our wits to follow the Philosopher. I, the Philosoraptor, try to run down his road. But my problem is compounded by the arrangment of the readings. Because there is a severe lack of time in which to read everything we skip about 85% of the Metaphysics and read very small selections. But everything Aristotle says builds upon what he has said previously and without a foundation I personally am left with little recourse other than to a) puzzle out his arguments myself, b) take his word for it, c) read the Metaphysics in its entirety later, though when exactly I don't know.

Grumping aside, Metaphysics is a great read and will be an instrumental step in my learning to read all over again. I will add it to the (alarmingly growing) list of books I need to read ASAP: Gorgias, Peloponnesian War, Histories, Nicomachean Ethics, On the Soul, and Physics.

Ah me. Ever ambitious.