Note to the Reader
The study of ancient philosophical texts involves, as is well known, problems of translation, terminology, and contextualisation. I have tried to be as consistent as possible in using English translations of several key terms and concepts that I have kept constantly throughout the book. Translations of Aristotelian texts all derive from The Complete Works of Aristotle. The Revised Oxford Translation, edited by J. Barnes, Princeton University Press, 1995 (sixth printing with corrections). The translator of each work is mentioned at the first citation. Translations of texts from other authors are also indicated in the notes. In some cases, I have slightly modified these translations. In particular, I have systematically adopted the verb to prescribe for ἐπιτάττειν, and prescription for the nouns ἐπίταξις and ἐπίταγμα; virtue for ἀρετή; desire for ὄρεξις; appetite for ἐπιθυμία; volition for βούλησις; choice for προαίρεσις; state for ἕξις. I have rendered σοφία by theoretical wisdom, and φρόνησις by practical wisdom. Finally, I have used the term limit to translate ὅρος in the contexts in which the theory of the “right mean” is treated. Greek texts are taken, as a rule, from the various Oxford Classical Texts. Alternative critical editions are mentioned when necessary.
As to conceptual and historical contextualization of the Aristotelian texts that are relevant to this research, I have certainly taken into account the prevailing views about the probable chronological order of the two Ethics and their relationship with both the Politics and Plato’s last work, the Laws. Nevertheless, I have chosen to give priority to the coherence of Aristotelian ideas about the issue of rules, rather than highlighting presumed changes in perspective from Eudemian to Nicomachean and Politics.