The Wisdom of Aristotle

Book excerpt: This is a profound study of Aristotle's concept of phronesis, or practical wisdom. Carlo Natali critically reconsiders Aristotle's famous doctrine of contemplations, relating it to contemporary theories of the good life. In Book X of the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle appears to claim that the best possible life is that which is engaged in theoria, usually translated "contemplation." Quite a few commentators have criticized what they call Aristotle's "intellectualism," suggesting that when he makes the intellectual life superior to all other human goods he opens the door to a Raskolnikov-like immoralism. Natali threads his way very carefully through the tangle of recent arguments on the topic, and presents a persuasive resolution that preserves the primacy of the life of the mind without giving any room for justifications of amorality. In Natali's discussion, Aristotle's analysis of wisdom comes into focus for us today as an attractive and well-argued ideal, to be kept in mind when we are deciding how to live.