Table Of Content• .' I
ARISTOTLE
FU,NDAMENTALS OF THE H�_STORY
OF HIS DEVELO ·PMENT
ARISTOTLE
ARISTOTLE
Fundamentals of the
History of His Development
BY
WERNER JAEGER
TllANSLATl!D
1
WITH THI! AUTHOllS COlllll!CTIONS AND ADDITIONS
BY
RICHARD ROBINSON
SECOND EDITION
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Oxford University Press, Amen House, London E.C.4
GLASGOW NEW YORK TORONTO llBLBOURNlt WELLINGTON
BOllBAY CALCUTTA MADRAS KARACHI LAHORE DACCA
CAPE TOWN SALISBURY NAIROBI JBADAN ACCRA
KUALA LUMPUR HONG KONG
l'IRBT PUBLISH&D 1934
8&COJID &DITIOJI 1948
R&PRIJIT&D LITHOGRAPHICALLY Ill GR&AT BRITAIN
AT TH& UJllV&RSITY PRIESS, OXFORD
1950, 19'5. 196o
l'IR8T-188U&DI ll OXPORD PAP&RBACXS 1962
PREFACE TO PAPERBACK EDITION
'"T'HIS book first appeared in Berlin in 1923 ; since then it has
J. been reprinted many times and translated into many
languages. A survey of the books and articles which its new
approach to the study of Aristotle has provoked since its first
publication would refiect the course that Aristotelian studies
have taken during the period and the way in which they have
been affected by the method of the book.
It goes without saying that at the end of my life I cannot
contemplate entering a discussion of this whole literature nor
could I, or anyone else, offer definite answers to all the problems
raised in or prompted by my study. I gladly confess that I have
learnt much, both from the discussions of others, and from my
own efforts such as those contained in my book Diokles von
Karystos (Berlin 1938) and the contributions now collected in
my Scripta Minora (Rome 1960). This study is presented here
once more in its original form, though between paper covers, in
tl)e hope that it may be the more easily accessible to every
earnest reader of Aristotle who wants to keep alive the problems
that formed the point of departure for our present-day dis-
cussions.
WERNER JAEGER
Harvard University,
Ca11e1bridg , J.t,fass. I96I
THE TRANS LA TOR'S PREFA CE
TO THE SECOND EDITION
N
this edition I have made about a score of alterations, most
I
of them suggested by two reviewers of the first edition,
Professor Benedict Einarson in Classical Philology, 1935, and
Professor Harold Cherniss in The American Journal of Philology,
1935. Of the two new appendixes, the first comes from The
Philosophical Review, 1940, and was written in English by
Professor Jaeger. The second comes from Sitzungsberichte der
preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch
historische Klasse, 1928, and is translated by myself.
The edition has a new and more complete index, the work
of Mr. James E. Walsh of Harvard University, to whom the
author has asked me to make this acknowledgement.
R.R.
THE TRANS LA TOR'S PREFA CE
HIS
T isa translatoifoA nri stoteles, Grundlegung einer Ge
schichte seiner Entwicklung, whicwha sp ublisheadtB erlin
in 1923 byt heW eidmannscBhuec hhandluIn hga.ve c onsulted
thea uthoorn t hem eaninogf n umerousesn tencesa,n dh eh as
madese veraall teratainodna sd dititonots h eG erman texats
ita ppeareind 1923. Thea ccuraocfyt he renderihnagsb een
<.-riti?.c.eidi np artb yD r.F ritz C. A. Kolln.Th e proprioeftt yh e
Englishahs been criti?.ie.cda lmostth roughobuyt D r.J ames
Hutton. Ia m verygra teful tot heseg entlemen.
Thist ranslaitsii onnt ellitgiobpe lrseo nsw hok nown oG reek.
All Greeki sr enderientdo Englisahn,d t heb ookso fa ncient
writingsa rer eferrteodn otb y Greekl ettebrsu tb y Roman
numeralTsh.e o nlye xceptitootn hi sru lei s AristotleM'etsa
physics, wherea peculiasri tuatmiaoknes any use ofn umerals
confusing.
Fore aseo fr ecognitIih oanv ea doptesdt andatrrda nslations
ofG reeak uthoarss f aars possibleI t.h ank theT rusteeso ft he
JowetCto pyright Funda ndt heD elegatofe tsh eO xforUdn i
versity Press for permission to use their translation oft hew orks
ofA ristoatnldeM ,e ssrs. Heinemann, the publishers ofth e Loeb
Classical Library, forp ermissitoonr eproduce R. D. Hicks's
translatioofAn ri stotlwei'lsl I. h ave ventured toq uotaen
occasionsealn tencfer omo thetrr anslawtiothrosut askingp er
missioDni.ff erenocfei sn terpretbaettiwoeneP nr ofessJoare ger
andt heO xfortdr anslahtaovresso metimes obligmeed t od epart
fromt heirre nderingT.h eq uotatiforonms I amblicharuse trans
latedb ym yself.
R. R.
THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE
GERMAN EDITION
HIS
book, being at once treatise and monograph, demands a
T
brief word of explanation.
It does not seek to give a systematic account, but to analyse
Aristotle's writings so as to discover in them the half obliterated
traces of his mental progress. Its biographical framework is
intended merely to make more palpable the fact that his pre
viously undifferentiated mass of compositions falls into three
distinct periods of evolution. Owing to the meagreness of the
material the picture that we thus obtain is of course fragmentary;
yet its outlines constitute a distinctly clearer view of Aristotle's
intellectual nature and of the forces that inspired his thinking.
Primarily, this is a gain to the history of philosophical problems
and origins. The author's intention is, however, not to make a
contribution to systematic philosophy, but to throw light on the
portion of the history of the Greek mind that is designated by the
name of Aristotle.
Since 1916 I have repeatedly given the results of these re
searches as lectures at the universities of Kiel and Berlin; even
the literary form, with the exception of the conclusion, was estab
lished in essentials at that time. The literature that has since
appeared is not very important for Aristotle himself anyhow, and
I have noticed it only so far as I have learnt something from it
or am obliged to contradict it. The reader will look in vain for
the results even of earlier researches so far as they concern
merely unimportant changes of opinion or of form; such matters
have nothing t6 do with development. Still less has my purpose
been to analyse all Aristotle's writings for their own sake and
to complete a microscopic examination of all their stages. The
aim was solely to elucidate in its concrete significance, by means
of evident examples, the phenomenon of his intellectual develop
ment as such.
In conclusion I offer my profoundest thanks to the publisher,
who, in spite of the unfavourableness of the times, boldly under
took the whole risk of publishing this book.
w. J.
BERLIN, Easter, z9113
CONTENTS
PAGE
Introduction. THE PROBLEM 3
PART I
THE ACADEMY
Chapter I. THE ACADEMY AT THE TIME OF ARISTOTLE'S
ENTRANCE :u:
Chapter II. EARLY WORKS 24
Chapter III. THE EUD EMUS 39
Chapter IV. THE PROTREPTICUS 54
PART II
TRAVELS
Chapter V. ARISTOTLE IN ASSOS AND MACEDONIA • 105
Chapter VI. THE MANIFESTO ON PHILOSOPH'I' • 124
Chapter VII. THE EARLIEST MET A PHYSICS. •
Chapter VIII. THE GROWTH OF THE METAPHYSICS.
Chapter IX. THE ORIGINAL ETHICS
Chapter X. THE ORIGINAL POLITICS 259
Chapter XI. THE ORIGIN OF THE SPECULATIVE PHYSICS AND
COSMOLOGY • 293
PART Ill
MATURITY
Chapter XII. ARISTOTLE IN ATHENS • 3JI
Chapter XIII. THE ORGANIZATION OF RESEARCH • 324
Chapter XIV. THE REVISION OF THE THEORY OF THE PRIME
MOVER 342
Chapter XV. ARISTOTLE'S PLACE IN HISTORY 368
APPENDIXES
I. DIOCLES OF CARYSTUS: A NEW PUPIL OF ARIST�TLE 407
II. ON THE ORIGIN AND CYCLE OF THE PHILOSOPHIC IDEAL OF LIFE · 426
INDEXES 463
