Aristotle Complete Works Volume IX

Author: Chief Editor: Miao Litian
Publisher:
Publication Date: 1997-01-01
Features: Excerpt: 【3】Since we have understood the parts that constitute a city-state, we must first explain household management, for all city-states are composed of households. The parts of household management involve the individuals who constitute a household; a complete household consists of slaves and freemen. We should first explain each thing starting from its basic components. The primary and basic parts of a household are masters and slaves, husbands and wives, and father and son. Therefore, we must examine each of these three relationships to determine what they are and what they should be, namely, the master-slave relationship, the relationship of spouses (the union of men and women has no proper name yet), and the third is the relationship of parent and child (this relationship also lacks a proper name). There is another element, known as "the art of acquiring wealth," some people believe this is household management, while others believe it is only a part of household management. We must also examine the nature of this part. Since we must not only consider the needs of actual life but also seek a more complete theory of the family than the current one, we will first examine the master-slave relationship. Some people believe that how masters govern their slaves is a science, and as I said at the beginning, household management, training slaves, and politics and monarchy are all the same. Others believe that the rule of masters over slaves deviates from nature. The difference between masters and slaves is determined by law rather than by nature, and it is not natural. Because it is coercive, it is unjust. 【4】Property is a part of the household, and the art of acquiring property is a part of the household management art (a person cannot survive without necessities, let alone live a good life), just as in a technique with a definite scope, workers must have their own special tools to complete their work. Household management is the same. There are various tools, some living and some inanimate; in navigation, the rudder is inanimate, while the lookout is a living tool, because in all techniques, assistants are only tools. Therefore, all property is a tool for sustaining life. In the arrangement of the household, slaves are a living property. Wealth consists of a large number of such tools; the assistant itself is a tool that uses tools. If all tools can complete their work, obey and anticipate the will of others, like Daedalus's statues and Hephaestus's three-legged throne, as the poet says, they automatically attend the assembly of the gods. If the shuttle could weave automatically and the plectrum could pluck strings automatically, then artisans would not need assistants, and masters would not need slaves. The tools we just mentioned are creative tools, while property is practical tools. We can get something else from the shuttle besides using it, but clothing and beds can only be used. Since the categories of creation and practice are different, and both require tools, the tools used by each must necessarily have the same distinction in type. But life belongs to practice rather than creation, so slaves are the executors of practice. In addition, people explain the meaning of a part by explaining a thing, because a part is not only a part of something else but also belongs to the whole. The same applies to property. The master is only the master of the slave; he does not belong to the slave. On the contrary, the slave is not only the slave of the master but also belongs entirely to him. Postscript: This volume includes five works: Politics, Household Management, Rhetoric, Alexander's Rhetoric, and On Poetry. The main parts of these works by Aristotle have been translated into Chinese, but some of these translations have been edited, and the titles do not completely match the translations included in this volume. In this volume, we have made some changes to the translations of the titles of certain works. Because this is a complete edition, the translations of the titles of these works should be consistent with those of the other works in the complete edition. For example, in the standard edition, the title of Rhetoric includes the word techne (technology), to retain this distinctive word, we translate it as Rhetoric here, rather than as Rhetoric in other standalone editions. In this volume, we no longer use the common translation Poetics but translate it as On Poetry. Because the title of this work in the standard edition is preceded by peri. In the planning of the complete edition, the translation of the titles was standardized to be consistent, with those ending in ka translated as "ology," and those beginning with peri translated as "On." The titles used in common standalone editions are acceptable as standalone editions, and in the literature, Poetics and Rhetoric have been widely used. But as part of the complete edition, as one of the newly translated works, we have the obligation to reflect the features of the original titles and maintain consistency with the translations of other titles in the complete edition. Oikonomik8 can be appropriately translated as "ology." However, instead of translating it as economics according to its derivative form in modern Western languages, we translate it as Household Management based on the original meaning of oikos as "home." In terms of content, it is mostly about accumulating property, managing slaves, and the ways of living between spouses and parent and child. The authenticity of this work is doubted by modern scholars, so many editions mark its title with an asterisk. Moreover, the third volume of the original text has been missing and has only been passed down through Latin translations. Therefore, Bekker excluded it from the complete edition. Later editions included it to complete the text, but it lacks Bekker page numbers. The compilation of this volume was completed by all members of the editorial team working together and taking responsibility. In addition, Politics volumes and were finalized by Qin Dianhua, while the translations of the other volumes were all handled by Yan Yi. On Poetry Bekkar page 1462b is the last page of the standard edition of the Complete Works of Aristotle. The submission of this translation means that all the works included in this collection have been completed. The remaining work is to fill in the gaps, which has been arranged and some translations are already ready. In addition, there are two more things: first, to include Aristotle's Constitution of Athens in the standard edition, and second, to select and append some fragments of Aristotle's works as appendices. These two parts make up the content of the tenth volume of this book, all compiled by Yu Jiyuan. Time flies, seasons change, and since the preparation of this book, it has been nearly ten years. The writing of this postscript and the publication of the preface are five years apart. In the midst of worldly chaos and changing circumstances, this long and arduous task is now coming to an end. This is inseparable from the strong support of the Department of Philosophy at Renmin University of China and the Renmin University of China Press. Each volume embodies the hard work of all colleagues. Among them, the special commemoration is the Deputy Chief Editor Wang Ying of the Press, who has been concerned and supported the preparation of this book from the beginning. When it was determined to be a national key project in the "Seventh Five-Year Plan" period for philosophy and social sciences, he personally participated in the planning meeting of the complete edition and paid close attention to the progress of the work. Unfortunately, he passed away too quickly and did not see the completion of this book. Since the publication of the volume, it has continuously attracted the attention of scholars at home and abroad, especially Dr. Robert Wardy of the United Kingdom. When he learned of our difficulties in seeking a new edition, he reported the situation to the Classics Department of Cambridge University, and we soon received the Oxford Classical Text edition of Aristotle's works as a gift. These new editions have been used in subsequent translations and revisions. However, we still have to regretfully point out that due to the lack of new editions, the article Alexander's Rhetoric still has to rely on the Bekker-Gigon edition we have as the basis for translation, and this book was still copied by someone from across the ocean at Harvard University. Professor Kato Shiroo of Tokyo University of Japan also donated a Japanese edition of the Complete Works of Aristotle as a reference. Scholars from other countries have also donated various reference materials. The kindness is too great to enumerate. What is particularly moving is that when this volume was completed, we learned that the volume of this book won the special prize in the national competition for outstanding academic monographs by university presses. With a sense of humility, we express our sincere appreciation for the academic insight of the members of the evaluation committee. The translation of classical works from abroad was once despised, but now it is equally awarded as other outstanding academic works in a national competition. This is not only an encouragement for this hard work but also indicates the improvement of the national theoretical quality. Since other volumes of the book had not been published at the time of submission, this also means an award for the entire work, indicating the expectation of open Chinese culture for foreign classical works. In making such an assumption, we absolutely dare not boast that the translation is without error, and the translators and proofreaders have always correctly understood the original text. We can only guarantee that we have not made arbitrary interpretations or extensions. In the preface, we aimed for accuracy to avoid the situation of some translations. As for completely achieving accuracy, it is a process of cultural improvement and theoretical thinking development, relying on the unremitting efforts of generations. If it were achieved overnight, this arduous task would be too easily imagined. Our lives are limited, but knowledge is infinite. Aristotle also said that infinite progress is impossible, and the process of understanding must have an end. Through the joint efforts of the editorial team and all relevant colleagues of the press, the Complete Works of Aristotle has now seen the light of day. At this moment, we absolutely dare not hope that it will be the final translation of Aristotle's works in Chinese in our country, nor will it replace the original texts of Aristotle's works. The role of translation is to popularize content and spread spirit, to popularize the scientific ideal of seeking knowledge in ancient Greece (episteme) and to spread the exploratory spirit of love of wisdom (philosophia) in ancient Greece, rather than to provide definitive conclusions for specialized research. The ancients said that poetry has no definitive interpretation, and here we are happy to add that literature is equally difficult to interpret. Just as no matter how fine a copy cannot replace the original, no matter how carefully written a translation cannot replace the original. I remember in the early 1940s, in Shapingba, Chongqing, by the Jialing River, on the pine-covered slope, in a thatched classroom, Professor Chen Kang taught Greek philosophy and said that to deeply understand Greek philosophy, one must learn Greek. Without understanding Greek, one cannot truly understand Greek philosophy. I think his words are not only effective for the professional study of Greek philosophy but also for the professional study of other Western classical philosophies. Language is the carrier of thought, and truth is spoken, it is logos. Without understanding a nation's language, it is difficult to understand the logos it speaks. My teacher has been with us for a year. He saw the publication of the volume of this book, reviewed the preface, and sent his satisfaction from across the ocean. Unfortunately, he did not hear the news of the completion of this book and could not see this postscript, the concluding words of the entire book. To commemorate the achievements of our predecessors and to carry forward their spirit of seeking truth, at this moment, we hope to regard the completion of this book as a new beginning. In the near future, there will be translations that are more accurate in content and more elegant in writing. In the soil of Chinese culture with 5,000 years of rich accumulation, such a hope will surely be realized, it will definitely be realized. After that, let us end this short note with the opening words of Metaphysics. "Pantesanthropoitoueidenaioregontaiphusei." Miao Litian February 1993, Lin Yuan