Aristotle on Emotion by W. W. Fortenbaugh (review)

626 BOOK REVIEWS The book has nineteen chapters with an average length of three to five pages per chapter. Fundamental epistemological and logical topics are touched on and the orientation is toward acknowledgment of correct forms, themes, and schemes for reasoning and away from formal preciosity. All topics are presented heuristically and the author has used both Venn Diagrams and Lewis Carroll Cells, the latter to particular advantage in representing multi-termed arguments and in analysing valid plurative arguments -those making quantificational use of terms like " most " and " more than half of." The reviewer knows of no book similar in purpose and in length which gives such substantial treatment to plurative arguments. The printing and binding are very good and the typefaces are easy to read. Most typographical errors are negligible except for one on page 86 where Tractatus proposition 6.37~ is incorrectly referred to as 6.73~ and the reviewer feels that the German original should have appeared in a footnote. The book is recommended as a supplement to a standard logic text in an introductory course and as a fine useful primer to any reader interested in logic but wary of technicalities. Dominican House of Studies Washington, D. O. NICHOLAS INGHAM, 0. P. Aristotle on Emotion. By W. W. FoRTENBAUGH. New York: Harper & Row, 1975. Pp. 101. The major thesis of this book is that a more rigorous and sophisticated examination of the emotions was begun in the Academy in Plato's old age, and is reflected in his Philebus and Laws, and this interest was intellectually consummated in Aristotle. Further, it is Aristotle's solution of the relationship of intellectual work and the emotional life that has the most important implications for his views of the natures and purposes of art, politics, ethics, language, etc. Professor Fortenbaugh briefly discusses some of the many passages in Plato's "Socratic" and middle dialogues which set forth a view of the opposition of reason and emotions; for example, in Re]YUblic 604al0ff, Plato extends the supposition of opposition between reason and emotion in an argument against the arts, especially tragedy and comedy. The intensity of the emotions that these bring forward (and their quality) disturbs rational order, for the individual and, consequently, for the body politic. Following Plato's ensuing suggestions in the later dialogues, Aristotle sees a cooperative relationship rather than an opposed relationship between BOOK REVIEWS 6~7 intellectual work and the emotions in a healthy human being. Art, for example, serves the bio-social functioning of the individual and thus is given not only a legitimate but also a necessary place within the state. Generally speaking the book is interesting but overly brief. Its brevity does much to limit or scuttle crucial themes connected with the topic, especially Aristotle's view of choice (proairesis) as a combination of the passional and the intellectual (orektikos nous or orexis dianoiatika, NE 1139a32) and, with such a discussion, the explanation Aristotle provides for weakness of the will (acracia). Indeed, Professor Fortenbaugh's failure to attend to these properly cannot be quite excused by brevity, for it is a failure to deal with the topic at a central albeit difficult point. As such, it indicates a superficiality which makes inroads in the overall suggestiveness of the book. It would also be fair to criticize the book for its slighting a genuine tension in Plato's pre-old-age discussions of the problem of ·emotion. I don't want to impose my own theory of this matter for that would· be especially unfair since the book is primarily concerned with Aristotle and not Plato. Nevertheless, there is obviously an emotion which is harmonious and correlated with intellectual vision by Plato: the emotion of beauty (and/or love). That the book makes no mention of this is because, it seems, in its brevity, it cannot explore the complex matter of the restrictions and demands on Plato and Aristotle arising from the levels on which their discussions are pursued. A lengthier work is needed for this important matter. State University of New Ymok Potsdam, New YMk MARTIN A. BERTMAN ...