Nicomachean Ethics

Preface

Many more or less important alterations have been made in this translation, which was first published in 1881, as new editions have from time to time been called for. The present edition in particular has been revised throughout, and brought into accordance with Bywater’s text (Oxford, 1890),1 which is coming to be recognized, not in Oxford only, as the received text of the Nicomachean Ethics. I wish gratefully to acknowledge the debt which, in common with all lovers of Aristotle, I owe to Mr. Bywater, both for his edition and for his Contributions to the Textual Criticism of the Nicomachean Ethics (Oxford, 1892).

To Mr. Stewart also I wish to express my gratitude, not only for much assistance derived from his admirable Notes on the Nicomachean Ethics (Oxford, 1892), but also for much kindly and helpful criticism in that work and in a review of my first edition (Mind, July, 1881). My old friends Mr. A. C. Bradley and Mr. J. Cook Wilson (professors now at Glasgow and Oxford respectively) will allow me to repeat my thanks for the valuable help they gave me when the first edition was passing through the press. To Mr. F. H. Hall of Oriel, and Mr. L. A. Selby Bigge of my own College, I am indebted for some corrections in a subsequent edition. To other translators and commentators I am also under many obligations, which I can only acknowledge in general terms.

When I have inserted in the text explanatory words of my own, I have enclosed them in square brackets thus [ ].

Editor’s Note

The original text had numbers in the margin to refer readers to particular lines. Because this was impractical to replicate in the ebook format, these have been omitted. Some of Peters’ notes have also had to be rewritten where they referred to these margin numbers.

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