Substance, form, and psyche : an Aristotelean metaphysics /

Furth (UCLA) worked on this extraordinarily detailed study of Aristotlefor 15 years and is embarrassed by this fact: "I should like to have produced a better book, but at this point I am glad to settle for a book." Substance, Form, and Psyche was worth waiting for. When Furth confesses, however, that "the theory described in this book is larger and more complex than my mind is able to contain simultaneously" the reader is properly warned that the book is not easy to grasp. "The work is irregularly stratified, with newer parts next to much older ones, some of the latter no longer the way I would write them today."It is amusing to realize that Aristotle's own writings exhibit just this confusion of strata and that Furth's prose style reflects his subject's. The book is endlessly involuted, simultaneously awkward and charming. Furth stresses the central importance of the biological writings for Aristotle's theories of form and substance. The author is good at sniffing out Aristotelean ambiguities and makes many important points, some of which have been anticipated in the recent literature. Highly recommended for graduate students and faculty. -H. L. Shapiro, University of Missouri--St. Louis