Aristotle's "Metaphysics"
I really liked this book all the way through even if it was from the beginning one of the hardest books to understand I've ever tried to read. I don't even know if I've come away with an kind of unified theory of his except that I came to the conclusion for myself, though I'm not sure Aristotle intends it, that Nature and God are the same thing, that it is a self-created, self-creating thing, and that it is something beautiful and precious. Aristotle's mind is likewise beautiful and precious, at least to me. I rather think he must have been one of those ancient Greeks who lived to be over a hundred and that he spent the entire time wrestling with the meaning of life and stuff, because dude actually came up with some answers! As well as being able to show in language all the steps he took to get there and all the other theories he either tried or didn't try to use and why he discards them one by one, and that's really why his writing is terrific. Everyone knows a lot of his conclusions have been disproven by now, but the way his mind works is so patient and precise that I find myself having all sorts of religious experiences while I'm reading him, even though I don't think he believed in gods. Anyway, he's on my profile as being up there with all my favorite authors, because I always feel better about life when I read him, even if I feel like I know less than I started with.
I really liked this book all the way through even if it was from the beginning one of the hardest books to understand I've ever tried to read. I don't even know if I've come away with an kind of unified theory of his except that I came to the conclusion for myself, though I'm not sure Aristotle intends it, that Nature and God are the same thing, that it is a self-created, self-creating thing, and that it is something beautiful and precious. Aristotle's mind is likewise beautiful and precious, at least to me. I rather think he must have been one of those ancient Greeks who lived to be over a hundred and that he spent the entire time wrestling with the meaning of life and stuff, because dude actually came up with some answers! As well as being able to show in language all the steps he took to get there and all the other theories he either tried or didn't try to use and why he discards them one by one, and that's really why his writing is terrific. Everyone knows a lot of his conclusions have been disproven by now, but the way his mind works is so patient and precise that I find myself having all sorts of religious experiences while I'm reading him, even though I don't think he believed in gods. Anyway, he's on my profile as being up there with all my favorite authors, because I always feel better about life when I read him, even if I feel like I know less than I started with.
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