The Relevance of Aristotle
What is it that Aristotle has to say philosophically that is so decidedly worth listening to, and particularly now? The answer is so elementary as to seem, initially, either question-begging or implausible. It is simply that, on the basis of our common sense, most of us would take to be the case what Aristotle in his philosophy straightforwardly affirms actually is the case. To put it another way, Aristotle is, par excellence , the philosopher of common sense. Unfortunately, the term common sense has become so hackneyed as to be comparatively uninformative. In an Aristotelian context it could even be misleading, since there the expression common sense has become a standard translation of one of Aristotle's own technical terms in his psychology. Perhaps, then one might do better to fall back upon one of Abraham Lincoln's oft-quoted pronouncements that accurately sums up what is both the consistent and persistent thrust of Aristotle's philosophy. It is Lincoln's remark