I still remember the early days of 2019 when I did an Online Review series about some Greek thinkers such as Thales, Solon, Democritus, Heraclitus, Epicurus, Pythagoras, Plato and then ending with Aristotle, I did not expect to have an affinity with Aristotle came like that. It started simply from curiosity, but when I read carefully, I realized that Aristotle was really "different" from previous thinkers in Greece, even other philosophers. later members of the West. He has the capacity for thorough thinking, intuition and impartiality to the absolute extent. There is no ethnicity, no skin color, no "foreignness" that can make him biased against his "middle way" and "higher" theory. And perhaps it is precisely because of this "middle path" and "high direction" of his that makes most people admire him but at the same time reject him, even to the point of misunderstanding and hatred. I really can't imagine that people could hate him, but perhaps at this point I realize that...wrong data when accumulated enough to a certain level can make people move away from truth. It's truly "unbelievable".
After completing the Moral Theory in April 2020, it was also the time when Hanoi entered the blockade period due to COVID, and I started translating Metaphysics with translator Nguyen Nguyen Hy, a PhD in Physics. training in the modern knowledge system with the foundation of those who are said to have "overthrown" Aristotle's system of thought. Uncle Hy completed the translation on January 17, 2021 and since then, it has been 2 years, I have continued to edit and handle the areas that he left open because he could not continue. I am old and not healthy enough to delve deep into Aristotle's worldview. I sympathize with you because I know that if you get to the end, it will be like having to "abandon martial arts" in order to be able to renew yourself and receive a new worldview, a new set of tools. This is difficult for people who have reached the other side of life.
He sent me a message that I appreciated very much: "Hopefully Nam and the guys at Book Hunter can process it to completion as soon as possible and print it." I appreciate this statement because he has his own opinion on what is complete and what is printable. Completion is probably completion, different from perfection. "Printable" probably means that the reader can read and understand and accept the translation, maybe somewhere unsatisfied or unsatisfied, but accepts and forgives the shortcomings.
Two years of working continuously with Metaphysics were also two years that made me become quiet. I used to be quiet, but in the past two years I've become even quieter. I see the tragedy of Aristotle and those like him in the course of history, and there is no guarantee that this era and future eras will not repeat that tragedy. Aristotle was born into a family with a medical tradition. His father, Nicomachus, belonged to the Asclepiadae family and served as royal physician to King Amyntas II of Macedon. Aristotle observed plants, animals, minerals, celestial bodies... basically everything around him, and for him, everything was an object to study and learn about in the most objective way possible. . The only subjective thing is probably his "middle way" and "higher" perspective. Because without the "middle way" and "high path", we will never end "injustice", "suffering", "hatred", in short, everything that is wrong. But Aristotle did not provide the solution that many people expected to end poverty, war or suffering. He only offers a path, and those who dare to walk on that path will know where it will lead. And to access his thoughts, the first thing we can do is to "dispose ourselves of martial arts" so that we can easily understand the concepts he introduced, even though those concepts are now obscured by time and covered by layers of words (Latin, Arabic, German, French, English...) and Vietnamese. The terms that I and Book Hunter give are not final, and perhaps it is difficult to know what is final, but these terms or all books published by Book Hunter only wish to provide gives you a set of tools that may be useful to one person, useless to another. As for me, publishing Aristotle's books first came from fate, then from compassion for his fate in history. Macedon rose strongly thanks to the reforms of Phillip II and Alexander the Great, and then when Macedon threatened Athens, Aristotle had to leave LYCEUM, the school he founded to share his worldview, and through life a year later. Many powerful people in Athens were not interested in his knowledge, they and other intellectuals drove him out of Athens out of jealousy, under the guise of nationalism: Athenians vs Macedonians. This situation has been repeated hundreds, even thousands of times in history, because "external nature" has obscured "self-nature", for fear of losing external things such as property, status, and fame. … but people will reject knowledge. Aristotle did not choose sides, he did not sit deep in the forbidden palace of Macedon to be protected by the soldiers of Alexander the Great, his student, to destroy Athens. He did not like annexation by force. He also did not choose to join the elites of Athens to fight Macedon, because the emotions and intelligence of the crowd were still somewhat naive here. And when conflicts broke out while his work of upgrading knowledge in Athens was unfinished, he had to leave. For him, unity (or Unity) is divided into many levels and the highest level must come from nature. Unification by force and coercion always does not bring sustainability. Aristotle writes as follows to understand what One is (i.e. Unity or Oneness) in Book Δ 6:
“For example, a bundle of firewood is made together by string, a wooden crate is made together by pieces of wood attached with glue; and a continuous line, even if it is curved, is said to be one, like each part of a limb, for example a leg or an arm. And these things themselves, which are naturally continuous, are one in a truer sense than those which are artificially continuous. “Continuous” means that their movements are inherently one, and cannot be different; and motion is one, when it is indivisible, that is, indivisible in time. Everything about self-nature that is continuous is one and not just due to contact; for if you put pieces of wood touching each other, you would not say that they are one piece of wood,…. And things that are completely continuous are said to be “one” even when they have joints, and also things that have no joints; For example, the shin or thigh is actually more one than the whole leg, because the movement of the leg may not be the same. And the straight line is actually one compared to the kinked line. We call the line that folds and contains an angle both one and not one, because it may or may not move at the same time; but a straight line always moves all its parts at the same time, and no part of it has any magnitude that remains at rest while another part moves,….”
Is a company or organization "one" if one person does something and the other person does nothing? Even if one person does it and the other person secretly prevents it? When we observe around us we realize that very few things are truly “one”, as defined by Aristotle, except for trees, animals,... creatures that are naturally born. Small companies or organizations with individuals sharing the same purpose, desire and level of awareness are easier to have unity and easier to maintain. Aristotle's tragedy comes from the desire for strong, rapid growth of the vast majority of organizations. They cannot and do not want to apply Aristotle's toolkit when it requires too much research and foundation costs and takes a very long time to build something "formed". But if other toolkits are causing us to fall quickly into “irreversible situations,” shouldn't we seriously study Aristotle?
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