Previous Next

Politics (c. 340 BCE)

Politics can be seen as a companion volume to Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, in which he defines a life of good quality and sets about describing how it should be achieved. In Politics he describes the kind of political association that would best facilitate the ends described in Nicomachean Ethics.

But Politics is not subservient to the other work. In it, Aristotle claims that individuals are largely defined by the cities in which they live and that man can be fully rational only by participating in the city. In Ethics, the city is a complete whole, and each individual is a mere part.

Poetics (c. 340 BCE)

In Poetics, Aristotle proposes to discuss poetry, which he defines as a means of mimesis, or imitation, by means of language, rhythm, and harmony. In particular, Aristotle focuses his discussion on tragedy, which uses dramatic, rather than narrative, form, and deals with agents who are better than us. Although Poetics is in a very different category from works Aristotle on topics such as ethics, logic, and physics, it has exercised a great deal of influence on subsequent literary theory, particularly in the Renaissance.

Organon

Organon is a work by Aristotle that is the focus of two sections of summary and analysis in the SparkNotes Guide Selected Works of Aristotle. The aspects of Organon discussed are The Syllogism and The Structure of Knowledge.

Physics

Physics is a work by Aristotle that is the focus of two sections of summary and analysis in the SparkNotes Guide Selected Works of Aristotle. The discussion of Physics is divided into Books I to IV and Books V to VIII.

Metaphysics

Metaphysics is a work by Aristotle that is the focus of three sections of summary and analysis in the SparkNotes Guide Selected Works of Aristotle. The discussion of Metaphysics is divided into Books Alpha to Epsilon, Books Zeta and Eta, and Books Theta to Nu.

Previous section Study Questions & Answers Next section Suggested Essay Topics

Popular pages: Nicomachean Ethics

Take a Study Break