Humanities Books

The above reviewer was probably an acting student at The Boston Conservatory. There, the standard text for senior year is Acting Power. That aside, the reviewer is correct. The book is the best you'll ever read on the techniques of acting. Forget Uta, forget Stanislavski, this book puts you in the mindset that what your scene objectives are are playable. You don't worry about what's behind you, you focus on what's ahead. Read the book and you'll see what I mean. Having written that, realize that you cannot really learn to act from a book. You have to work at it. This book just helps you come from a realistic standpoint.

"The best book on how to act yet written" is how this book is described on more than one "recommended books for actors" list. Aimed at the College Senior/Conservatory level. Some find it easier to follow if read backwards -- starting with the Appendix, then Chapter Six, then Chapter Five, etc.

This book is the most comprehensive overview of found objects and conclusive evidence that I have read to date. It is old, but that doesn't matter, since the material it covers is much older. Fascinating! A little difficult to get through at times, but factual, and therefore and invaluable resource.

The Age of Stonehenge was originally written in 1980. Colin Burgess subsequently left the field of the early prehistory of the British Isles for work in the Mediterranean on the Phoenicians and the Sea Peoples. The book has subsequently seen new editions in 2001 and 2003, which suggests that the material is both well presented and well researched. If it is any indication of his thoroughness one can only regret his early departure from English pre-history and his early retirement from the academic world in general.

While I found the first few chapters a little difficult to get through because they deal primarily with pottery styles, I enjoyed the book as a whole. It filled in a great deal of information with respect to the culture of the age of Stonehenge, and corrected several misapprehensions I had acquired from other reading. Most importantly, it presents a fine overview of modern archaeology as applied to a period that many people think they already know!

I was particularly impressed with the introduction of more recent information on the character of early settlement and subsequent culture change. Early books on the topic accredit population movements, invasions, and total replacement of one culture by another. Having taken some archaeology classes on European archaeology within the past 5 years, I had become aware of professional doubts on this topic. The tendency of past researchers to think in terms of nations, ethnic groups, etc., probably because we live with these social structures today, had produced a map covered with tribal names and arrows of migration that is now being discredited. As the author notes, it is more likely that culture and populations remained stable for centuries, in contact and exchanging cultural variables among them along shared borders. The archaeology of the British Isles bears little credence to anything like massive invasions. He does note the movements in the period of the Sea Peoples in the Mediterranean and suggests that during this time considerable movement of people may well have occurred in the British Isles as they did elsewhere.

What surprised me particularly was the degree of organization of property and control over land and people. One has the impression of á relatively open society with everyone living much the same as everyone else and of mass efforts to erect major monuments for which the group felt the need. It is abundantly apparent that the building of Stonehenge and other major works required a large labor force, but one does not necessarily carry that idea forward to the conclusions that naturally would arise from shear numbers. What kind of life did these people live? How were they organized on a day to day basis? Was there a cooperative effort across geo-political borders? Etc. The author answers many of these questions.

Among the specific data Burgess provides, I was most surprised by the apparent lack of artistic sense among craftsmen of the day-he noted that most of the artifacts found are very functional with little or no decoration. That pragmatism seems counter intuitive, since evolutionary studies seems to base the very concept of "modern" man on artistic criteria like the cave paintings of Spain and France, the Venus figurines and other artistic products: the difference between "modern humans" and "anatomically modern humans." I was also surprised by the apparent lack of a weaving/spinning tradition in the Isles until the 1st millennium. It seems so basic to the culture of other places, that it's late introduction here is surprising.

If you've never been taught to fly, this is a great place to learn. Bachelard will show you how to discover your buoyancy, remove your reliance on the intellectual feathered wings of angels, and make a pure leap into thin air, supported only by dreams. It's one hell of voyage to take with this wonderful man. It's frequently bewildering, and oftentimes leaves one longing for the solid ground of a more traditional discourse. But if you can find your way through the poetic fog to meet Bachelard on his own terms, you may be lucky enough to rediscover the boundless terrain that is poesis, to unleash your imagination from intellect's grasp, and then discover verticality as you take flight in the metaphor that is subtle air, as I did. Warning: This is no book for the literal minded.

Air and Dreams (1943) is one of Bachelard's four studies on literary imagination, imagination whose destiny is determined by four fundamental elements. The other three are: The Psychoanalysis of Fire (1938), Water and Dreams (1942), and the two "earth" books (The Earth and Reveries of Rest (1946), The Earth and Reveries of Will (1948)). If the reader wants to see Bachelard the philsopher of imagination at work, Air and Dreams may be the best place to start, since it is here that he posits his philosphical positions a little more clearly and explores them in more depth than he does in other works.

To Bachelard, imagination, as a fundamental psychic value, is what makes human freedom possible. To imagine is for our psyche to experience "openness" and "novelty," and in this regard, imagiation and perception--habitual way of seeing things--are antithetical. As he writes in the Introduction: "Imagination allows us to leave the ordinary course of things ... To imagine is to absent oneself, to launch out toward a new life." Such "form of human boldness," however, is never an escapist lapse into fantasy, since to Bachelard the materialist, "the imaginary is immanent in the real" while "in the realm of the imagination transcendence is added to immanence."

Since the advent of psychoanalysis, sickness of normality or normality of sickness in our mental life are taken for granted. Everybody is neurotic, more or less. So, Freudian psychoanalysis is generally credited with revealing the dark recesses of human psyche, giving it the name of "unconscious," and hence with accepting 'unreason' as a strong force in our mental life. But has it explained 'unreason' adequately? Bachelard says no. To him, the blindess of classical psychoanalysis is that it misses the "aesthetic" aspect of dreams. With its essentially rationalizing tendency, psychoanalysis usually turn dreams into a text of symbols, which in turn is made into an array of concepts. Hence, to rational psychoanalysts, dreams of flight always symbolize erotic desires, which can be explained with a variety of conceptual tools made for anayzing human sexuality and its repression.

Limitations of such approach are obvious when we read, for instance, images of flight in Shelley's "Prometheus Unbound" or images of ascending, or conquering vertigo, in Nietzsche. All testaments to a profound and simple life, to the power of imagination as a liberating force, these images have little to do with the poets' voluptuous desires, repressed or not. Indeed, neurosis to Bachelard is essentially a mal-function of imagination. As he notes in the Introduction: "A person deprived of the function of the unreal is just as neurotic as the one deprived of the reality function. It could even be said that difficulties with the function of the unreal have repercussions for the reality function. If the imagination's function of openness is insufficient, then perception itself is blurred."

The chapter on Nietzsche ("Nietzsche and the Ascensional Psyche") would be of particular interest to Nietzsche students. Here we see how Bachelardian attention to imagination can reveal the hidden law at work behind the apparently accidental arrays of literary images. In the case of Nietzsche, his numerous images of conquest and domination, his intoxicated affirmation of will to power, were generally seen as indications of his megalomania, perhaps inevitable but still an uncomfortable aspect of his philosophy. Walter Kaufmann for instance thinks of such element as clearly an expression of Nietzsche's "snobbery" and "infatuation" with domination, which, he is quick to add, are perpetually sublimated and spiritualized. To Bachelard, these images of Nietzsche form an "experimental physics of the moral life," which lets us experience an "accelerated becoming," or "transformation of energy." They are ones that faithfully follow the destiny of Nietzschean soul.

With this tour-de-force chapter on Nietzsche, Air and Dreams has many more magical chapters, chapters on individual poets such as, yes, Shelley, and Poe, and more theme-oriented ones on "sky," "clouds," or "trees." The book can be read as an implicit plea for curing the ills of modernity, and in this sense, would be read fruitfully together with such notable critics of modernity as Adorno, Benjamin, or even Lukacs.

Algernon Charles Swinburne is in my opion the finest english Elizabethian Age Poet. He wrote so much of such a consistently high standard. If you like classical poetry, you owe it to yourself to find this book. Sadly most books with his poetry in it are in Library bindings, and; therefore, unaffordable for most individuals. Find his poetry, and he will create a new world for you. I can't say enough good things about this writer. His understanding of human feelings, and our innate kinship with myticism and shadows are clearly present in his early works. In addition, his meter formats are among the most intense and intricate I have ever read. If you claim to enjoy poetry. Do yourself a favor and find Swinburne. Here is a sample from his work "The Garden of Proserpine"

"I am tired of tears and laughter,/ And men that laugh and weep;/ Of what may come hereafter/ For men that sow to reap: I am weary of days and hours,/ Blown buds of barren flowers,/ Desires and dreams and powers/ And everything but sleep."

Denounced by a Victiorian critic as a "libidinous laureate of a pack of satyrs", Swinburne's oeuvre includes forays into the realms of political, moral and spiritual revolt, themes which ran counter to the bourgeois solidity of the Victorian era. Three of his best works which illustrate this are "Anactoria", which includes the memorable line: "Exceeding pleasure in superflux of pain", an illustration of the sadistic dimension of the lesbian protagonists' relationship, "Dolores" and "Hertha" which places Swinburne in the camp of mystical transcendentalism. This collection is a must for those who want to be acquainted with one of the greatest poets in the English language, a virtuoso of metrical composition, as well as a lyric champion of vice.

This is the first History book that I found interesting. Not only does it give you good information... but it shows different views on events in history.

I have yet to finish reading the entirety of this rather extensive piece on the history of America, but so far have found this book to not only hold my interest, but to provide a wealth of important, and often fascinating information. I think all Americans should read this book because it teaches about the true foundations of our country. Some facts may be difficult for some to accept, such as the atrocities committed against the Native Americans, among others, but nonetheless they need to be told. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who really wants to learn about how our country came to be what it is today.

I am grateful to Mr. Bodley for this enlightening analysis of modern social problems (e.g. environmental deterioration, food scarcity, overpopulation, and gross inequality) viewed in light of modern knowledge of our small-scale, tribal forbears who have lived in relative harmony with their ecosystems and in a relatively egalitarian social structure for tens of thousands of years. In other words, the most dire social problems we face today are not inevitable consequences of human nature, but are cultural and can be changed. As such, we stand much to learn from these maligned "primitives."

Bodley might have taken his recommendations (saved for the last 15 pages) further than he did (e.g. an ideological repudiation of market principles & nation-states), but the information he gathers from the modern sciences & history makes the conclusion unavoidable that a radical socio-political restructuring is necessary in order for human survival (not merely civilization) to continue.

I am grateful to Mr. Bodley for this enlightening analysis of modern social problems (e.g. environmental deterioration, food scarcity, overpopulation, and gross inequality) viewed in light of modern knowledge of our small-scale, tribal forbears who have lived in relative harmony with their ecosystems and in a relatively egalitarian social structure for tens of thousands of years. In other words, the most dire social problems we face today are not inevitable consequences of human nature, but are cultural and can be changed. As such, we stand much to learn from these maligned "primitives."

Bodley might have taken his recommendations (saved for the last 15 pages) further than he did (e.g. an ideological repudiation of market principles & nation-states), but the information he gathers from the modern sciences & history makes the conclusion unavoidable that a radical socio-political restructuring is necessary in order for human survival (not merely civilization) to continue.

Jean William's edited text is a favorite of mine. I use it in our graduate program at Georgia Southern University. The authors have done an excellent job of presenting both the "whys" and "how tos" of the intervention techniques in sport psychology. Several leading sport psychologists have made significant, easy to understand, contributions to this text. This book has accomplished the rare feat of being able to be used as an academic text AND a "performance enhancement" book for the interested athlete, coach, exerciser, or other performers.

As a performance enhancement specialist, I am constantly looking for activities and exercies to do with my clients. This book helps to develop PST programs, including various activites to do with your athletes. This book was used as a text in a Sport Psychology class that I took. I have found it to be extremely helpful and fully recommend it.

First off, I'd like to agree with the first reviewer. This is an excellent compilation that stands by itself (although, for an intro class, it definitely requires a "discipline-oriented" text book like Kottak as a guiding force). I would recommend this book highly to my fellow anthros and to general readers alike. What follows is a brief summary of some of my favorite articles in the collection. The selections are all short and well-written, they make interesting and useful points and convey the complexity and utility of anthropology very, very well.

I've been waiting a long time to see Peggy McIntosh's wonderful essay on "White Privilege" in print somewhere. I had the distinct pleasure of hearing her give an oral version of the same talk a number of years ago and am very very pleased to see it published here for the benefit of students. The book is worth the price for that article alone.

However, this is not the only gem in this collection. Phillipe Bourgois' work on crack dealers is introduced here as is Gerald Murray's work on wood farming as a means to encourage re-forestation programs in Haiti. There are also classics such as Richard Lee's story of the !Kung San insulting of his gift of a Christmas ox ("Eating Christmas in the Kalahari") and Laura Bohannon's failure to get Tiv elders to see Hamlet as a story about incest, revenge and justice. Jared Diamond's revisionist view of the advent of agriculture is also here (perhaps an antidote for his more recent "Guns, Germs and Steel" though undoutedly similar in style).

Other personal favorites of mine include Eugene Cooper's discussion of Chinese table manners (also a must for people who want to teach a course on the anthropology of food), Richard Reed's examination of the tension between environmentalists and indigenous communities in Paraguay, Joan Cassels' excellent analysis of surgery as a male-gendered medical speciality and Paul Farmer's and Arthur Kleinman's thoughtful peice on suffering and AIDS in Haiti.

Incidentally, I would thoroughly recommend anything by Paul Farmer to readers interested in social medicine. His scholarship and humanity are both quite phenomenal and totally justify the attention he has recieved due to the MacArthur fellowship.

I only have a couple of quibbles with this book and even these are not so much criticisms as comments for the unwary: Jennifer Laab's peice on corporate anthropologists seems to have been written for a corporate audience as a selling point for anthropology. As such it plays up the notion of anthropologists as service providers for corporate interests in a way which is a little frown-inducing for an academician such as myself. Not because I don't approve of anthropology in the private sector, but because the peice itself seems to argue that anthropology is merely a set of techniques that can be workshopped (like team-building exercises)to busy executives for the greater good of the company. Again, this is a VERY worthwhile point to debate, but not one that easily stands without comment. Secondly, the article by Wade Davis (he of "Serpent and the Rainbow" fame), while again discussion-worthy, seems a little superficial, dated in language and probably replaceable (Robert Voeks'recently-published "Sacred Leaves of Candomble" is one alternative that springs to mind). Lastly, I would like to plead for the inclusion of a selection on tatooing or bodily adornment of some sort in any future editions. This is a topic of enduring interest among students and would definitely be an asset to such a nicely-balanced and valuable collection.

When I took a sophomore level anthropology class at my University, Applying Anthropology was required as a secondary reading text, in addition to Kottak's Anthropology (7th edition). Applying Anthropology contains 52 articles in the categories of Biological Anthropology, Archaeology, Cultural Anthropology, Culture and Communication, Culture and Food, Culture and Race, Economy and Business, Gender and Socialization, Politics & Law & Warfare, and Social & Cultural Change. Instead of being a textbook that was something I just read for the class that required it, it turned out to be a book that I would have bought for my own personal purposes. Also, in addition to enjoying reading it, I learned a lot about anthropology. One of my favorite articles discusses what may have happened on Easter Island that resulted in the demise of an entire culture. All in all, Applying Anthropology provides an interesting approach to learning a lot about culture worldwide.

Professor of Historic Preservation and Anthropology Donald Hardesty presents The Archaeology Of The Donner Party, an extensively researched history of an ill-fated expedition to California in the winter of 1846-1847. Trapped by snow in the uppermost reaches of the Sierra Nevada, half of the Donner Party perished from starvation; the remaining half had to cannibalize their dead to survive. The tragedy became fuel for legends, folklore, and stories about westward expansion; but what truly happened? The Archaeology Of The Donner Party turns to the science of archaeology to unravel long-standing mysteries. Contributions by Michael Brodhead, Donald Grayson, Susan Lindstrom, and George Miller aid the author in gathering as much raw data as possible, some of which is offered in the form of charts for the reader's perusal; the result is an astute cross-examination of the telltale footprints of history. A handful of black-and-white The Archaeology Of The Donner Party is welcome not only for its meticulous reconstruction of a devastating tragedy, but also as an example of how archaeology can aid in the study of relatively recent history as surely as the history of civilizations from thousands of years ago.

Read this book after reading "Frozen in Time" (about the Franklin expedition lost in the arctic) and "Alive" (about a 1972 plane crash in the Andes), both terrible and true tales of people forced to fight death and starvation.

This book is as stunning as the other two!

The book is well researched. Dramatic. Brings to light details and hypothesis of how these people coped in the face of death.

It is interesting seeing this team piece together the Donner party's activities.

Fantastic read if your into human adventure & spirit!

Volume thirteen in the Rutgers University Series of Classical Humanities, Aristo Of Ceos: Text, Translation, And Discussion, edited by William W. Fortenbaugh (Professor Emeritus of Classics at Rutgers University) and Stephen A. White (Associate Professor of Classics at The University Of Texas at Austin), is an anthology of highly scholarly essays revolving around the Greek philosophical School of Aristotle in general, and the philosophical works of Aristo of Iulis on Ceos in particular. Not to be confused with the similarly named Stoic philosopher from Chios, Aristo of Iulis' works include biographies of Heraclitus, Socrates, and Epicurus, recording the wills of the leaders of Peripatos, as well as several possible writings whose authorship remain in dispute between Aristo and his Stoic counterpart. Individual essays include numerous excerpts from ancient Greek texts; though at least one essay is in Greek, the overwhelming majority of Aristo of Ceos is in English or has an English translation. A close study of characters in Aristo's writings, natural philosophy and peripatetic biology in Aristo's era, and much more, ideal for college libraries and advanced practitioners of philosophy.

Aristo of Ceos: Text, Translation, and Discussion edited by Stephen White, William Fortenbaugh (Rutgers University Studies in Classical Humanities, Volume XIII: Transaction Publishers) Aristo (fl. c. 225-200 BCE.), of lulis on Ceos. Peripatetic philosopher; probably Lyco's successor as head of the School. In antiquity, Aristo was confused with the like-named Stoic of Chios. Diogenes Laertius reports a book list for the Stoic but adds that Panaetius and Sosicrates attribute all the works except the epistles to the Peripatetic. Works with Peripatetic precedents, such as Exhortations and Erotic Dissertations, can be plausibly attributed to the Peripatetic. Other sources report additional titles: Lyco (perhaps part of Dialogues mentioned in Diogenes' list), On Old Age, and On Relieving Arrogance. Whether part of the last-named work or from a separate treatise, Aristo's descriptions of persons exhibiting inconsider?ateness, self-will, and other unattractive traits (preserved in Philode?mus) relate closely to the Characters of Theophrastus. In addition, Aristo wrote biographies of Heraclitus, Socrates, and Epicurus. We may be sure that he did the same for the leaders of the Peripatos. Diogenes cites Aristo as his source for the will of Strato; the wills of Aristotle, Theo?phrastus, and Lyco probably also derive from Aristo. Because of the fragmentary literary remains he is often confused with Aristo (fl. mid-3rd cent. BCE.), of Chios, a pupil of Zeno of Citium. Aristo of Chios was perceived as giving Stoicism a Cynic turn, successfully resisted by Cleanthes (after., Seneca Letters 94.4) and Chrysippus (e.g., Plutarch SR 1034d).
Excerpt: There were many Aristo's in antiquity and the often nonspecific man?ner of citing used in ancient texts (e.g., simply as "Aristo") inevitably causes problems.' M a result, the attribution of texts to Aristo of Ceos often is a matter of scholarly dispute, especially where Aristo of Ceos is to be distinguished from the Stoic Aristo of Chios, who is un?comfortably close to Aristo of Ceos not only in time of living, but also in the Greek and Latin designation of his home country...
The present edition of the fragments of Aristo of Ceos is modeled on that of the fragments of Demetrius of Phalerum in RUSCH vol. 9 and of Lyco of Troas in RUSCH vol. 12. In the case of Aristo of Ceos the format of the edition is determined- much more so than in the case of Demetrius of Phalerum or Lyco of Troas-by the often problematic nature of the attribution of the fragments, particularly where the dis?tinction between Aristo of Ceos versus Aristo of Chios is involved.
The texts are divided into five sections: I texts concerning the Life of Aristo of Ceos (1-6); II and III texts concerning the Writings of Aristo of Ceos, that is to say, II texts concerning the Writings of which the attribution to Aristo of Ceos is considered certain and uncontested (7?17); III texts concerning the Writings of which the attribution to Aristo of Ceos is considered uncertain and Disputed (18-29); IV texts pre?serving Sayings that (rightly or wrongly) have been attributed to Aristo of Ceos (30); V texts that have been attributed to Aristo of Ceos but are Not accepted in the present edition and are listed mainly for ease of reference (31-49). Most of the texts are what traditionally are called testimonia rather than fragmenta.
The decision to include a fragment either in section II (fragments of certain attribution) or in section III (fragments of disputed attribution) was made on the strictly formal ground of the presence or absence of a sufficiently explicit reference to Aristo of Ceos in the texts and not on the philosophical contents. In III the uncertainty of attribution is caused al?most exclusively by the nonspecific nature of the reference ("Aristo" in 19-29); in one case (18) by a difference in reading of the MSS. The scholarly debate concerning the attribution of these texts invariably in?volves the choice between the Peripatetic Aristo of Ceos and the Stoic Aristo of Chios, and is of necessity wholly based upon the contents of the texts. The editors purposely abstain from arguing either way, and merely aim at presenting the material with a maximum of clarity in order that the users may judge for themselves.
The material is not large enough to admit of any extensive subdivision of the five sections. In the case of the texts concerning the Writings (II & III), the texts have been arranged according to the title (Lyco 15) or sub?ject matter (On Old Age, On Flattery, On Arrogance 18-21) mentioned in the texts and in such a way as to facilitate the comparison of the texts of certain attribution with those of disputed attribution (e.g., under the
parallel headings "Erotic Examples" 10-14 and 22, "Lives of the Phi?losophers" 16 and 23-5, "Of uncertain provenance" 17 and 26-9).
Texts that have not been accepted (V) are arranged primarily ac?cording to the identity of the Aristo who appears most likely to be in?volved (Aristo of Chios 32-5; 41-4; 45-7; Aristo the Younger 36-40; Aristo the Peripatetic Aristo of Ceos 31). These texts are printed whenever Wehrli and/or Knogel print the text as a fragment of Aristo of Ceos (31-3; 41-9); in all other cases only a reference to the text is given (34-40).2
The present edition has 22 texts more than Wehrli's edition (4B; 13B; 19; 29; 30; 32-44; 46-9); one text included by Wehrli is exclu?ded from the present edition (31). Of the added texts, two are parallel texts not included by Wehrli (4B; 13B); one (a papyrus text) was not known at the time of Wehrli's edition (19); the remainder are texts of disputed attribution (29) or texts that have not been accepted (32-44; 46-9).
The texts are numbered from 1 to 49. In some cases (2A-B; 4A-B; 13A-B; 14A-B; 17A-D; 24A-B), a number covers two or more texts which are distinguished by the letters A-B(-C-D). These texts refer to the same specific subject matter (in that sense they are parallel texts), but the information supplied by these texts differs significantly enough to quote them in full. In the case of PHerc. 1008 the columns of the papyrus have been numbered separately 21a-o.
In editing the texts, the editors have taken as their starting-point the text of an existing recent edition (mentioned in the heading of the text with line numbers of the edition used). That does not mean that the text printed here is identical to that of the edition mentioned in the heading. The editors have felt free to make changes in the text. These changes are accounted for in the lower critical apparatus, and reflect our edito?rial policy. In an edition of fragments, problems relating to the consti?tution of the text ought to be made perfectly clear to the user and not glossed over in order to effect an "easy" reading.
The texts as printed in this edition are based upon the information supplied in the editions used, and no original research on the paradosis has been done by the editors, with the following exceptions. The texts from Diogenes Laertius (1, 5; 8; 16; 23-5) are based upon collations made by Tiziano Dorandi in preparing a new edition of the Vitae Phi?losophorum. Anna Angeli of the Liceo Classico Vittorio Emanuele III di Napoli has generously put at our disposal information based upon personal inspection of PHerc. 1457 (20) and 1008 (21 a) which has not yet been published; the text of these fragments printed in the present collection is based upon her inspection of the papyri. Stefan Radt of Groningen University has generously put at our disposal the text, ap?paratus criticus and commentary of his new Strabo edition (Gottingen 2003-) for the two Strabo texts (2A and 31).3
References to the corresponding testimonia and fragmenta in Wehrli's edition are given in the left-hand margin of the Greek text at the line where Wehrli's fragment begins. The upper apparatus of par?allel texts makes reference to all parallel texts in the strict sense which explicitly mention Aristo of Ceos (the line numbers of the edition used are always added in these cases), and also to parallel texts in a wider sense which, without referring to Aristo, contain information that seems particularly relevant to the interpretation of the text (the passage or text is merely cited in these cases and often introduced by means of cf.). In addition, references are given to modern editions or collections of frag?ments of authors mentioned in the text. Finally, there are cross-refer?ences by means of numbers in bold type to other texts in the present collection in order to assist the user in collecting information.
The lower or critical apparatus is based upon the critical apparatus of the edition used for the text. It is selective and aims at supplying in?formation specially relevant to the user of this edition. As a rule it is fuller than that found in the edition of Wehrli.
The translation tries to effect the impossible in being both readable and as close to the original as possible. The Philodemus texts (19-21) have proven to be particularly difficult in this respect and the editors-who with one exception are not native speakers of (American) En?glish- are fully aware that their word-by-word translation is likely to compare unfavorably with a continuous translation like that of Voula Tsouna or Jeffrey Rusten.
The notes to the translation serve two purposes. First, they may sup?ply (often quite basic) information which will assist the user in under?standing and interpreting the text. Second, they place the text within the wider context of the work from which it has been taken. Although the notes are not intended as a full commentary, they are fuller than they would be if the editors were planning to add a companion volume con?taining a commentary. This is especially so in the case of the fragments of disputed attribution (III) and the fragments that have not been ac?cepted (V), where the (often tedious lists of) references aim solely at assisting the users in finding their way in the maze of secondary litera?ture on the subject.
Tables of Abbreviations and of Editions Used have been provided. All abbreviations not found in these tables are those of LSJ. In view of the many references in the notes to the translation, a separate list of Studies cited in this edition has been added; it is not intended to be ex?haustive. The Concordances relate the texts in this edition to those of Aristo of Ceos by Wehrli (1968) and Knogel (1933);4 to those of Ari?sto of Chios by Arnim (SVF 1905), Festa (1935) and Ioppolo (1980); to that of Aristo the Younger by Wehrli (1969); and to that of Aristo of Alexandria by Mariotti (1966). The Index of Aristonean Texts lists all Aristonean texts in the strict sense of the word, i.e., all texts explicitly mentioning Aristo of Ceos, printed here as a text (indicated by means of numbers in bold type) or entered in a list, and all parallel texts in the strict sense, i.e. all parallel texts explicitly mentioning Aristo of Ceos, entered in the upper apparatus. All other passages cited in the upper (or lower) apparatus and in the notes to the translation are listed in the In?dex of Passages Cited. The Index of Names to the translation may help the users in finding their way through the fragments more quickly. Because the notes to the translation cite many modern scholars, an In?dex of Modern Scholars has been added in order to make it easier to collect the opinions of the various scholars who have worked on Aristo of Ceos. Finally, a List of Citations of Aristo is added in order to pro?vide an overview of the manner in which Aristo is cited in the fragments.