Abstract
380 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY little he really has to say about the Thaetetus was said already in his second book. At the root of Klein's eccentric interpretation of the Theaetetus is his erroneous contention that knowledge is dealt with thematically in the Sophist. In Klein's treatment of the Statesman he makes much of the faultiness that crops up constantly in the divisions aimed at revealing the statesman (see pages 147, 16o, 161, t63, 17t, 172, t74, 191, esp. t61 and t72 ). He thinks this accords with the subject matter, the statesman, since statesmen seem to be so seriously faulty in their activities and most burdensome to men on account of it. Presumably the faults of the practicing statesman would be eliminated by a truly knowledgeable statesman, that is, a statesman who had the dialectical knowledge of the philosopher. It is Klein's major point in his discussion that the true king must have such knowledge, but he hardly argues for this conclusion. Whatever argument is to be found is on pages 176-77 (for confirmation of this see p. 2oo); here he merely suggests that because the Stranger and young Socrates are becoming more dialectical about all matters, through their search for the statesman, the statesman must have dialectical knowledge about all things. This is no argument at all, unless it is shown that by becoming more dialectical the Stranger and the young Socrates become statesmen or closer to being statesmen. However, Klein never shows this. An interesting point that Klein makes in his discussion of the Statesman is that the means the Stranger uses in the investigation, the method of division and the illustration by models, can be linked directly to the outstanding model of the whole dialogue , that of weaving. The collections at the end of every division are like the taut, vertical warp, and the models, such as that of the age of Cronos, are like the looser, horizontal woof. When these are woven together there is the fabric of the dialogue (see pp. 165-66 ). As has been indicated, this book can be useful; but it has serious flaws. Jacob Klein's earlier books, especially his first, are more highly recommended. RONALD M. POLANSKY Duquesne University Anthony Kenny. The Aristotelian Ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978. Pp xi + 250. $22.5o. In The Aristotelian Ethics Anthony Kenny uses the tools of philosopher, classicist, and statistician to solve the mystery of the true home of the books common to the Eudemian and Nicomachean Ethics. Were they lecture notes originally written by Aristotle or his redactor for the one, but then revised and joined onto the later edition for completeness' sake; or were they written expressly for the later work but then added onto the earlier; or were .they independent of both and later tagged onto each? Kenny opts for the second alternative, never seriously considering the first, and argues for the original completeness of the Eudemian and its chronological and philosophical seniority. 9 Ibid., pp. 27-3 I, 158-66. BOOK REVIEWS 381 Kenny's project is ambitious, and there is much to be learned from its painstaking analyses of problem passages and its uncovering of neglected tracts in the Eudemian. But in the end the project is only partially successful. The Euderaian is crowned the winner of his contest, but only at the cost of philosophically discrediting the Nicomachean . Given this price, the contest he elaborately constructs seems an unnecessary shuffle in scientific and historical method.' In addition, Kenny's style is tedious and somewhat pious, and many of his arguments lack imagination and vision. His cooly analytic approach is not unlike the Euderaian that, unsurprisingly, he champions as the true Ethics. Kenny begins his argument citing historical evidence that until the second century A.D. the Eudemian was regarded as The Ethics and the home of the common books. The tide turns with the commentaries of Aspasius and Alexander, who establish the prevailing tradition of the primacy of the Nicomachean. Kenny hopes to turn back the tide by means of a careful philosophical and statistical analysis of the three texts: the undisputed NE, the undisputed EE, and the disputed common books, AE. In...
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