About the Author

Eugene Garver is the Regents Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Saint John's University. Among his earlier books are Aristotle's "Rhetoric: " An Art of Character, Confronting Aristotle's Ethics: Ancient and Modern Morality, and Aristotle's "Politics: " Living Well and Living Together, all published by the University of Chicago Press. He has also retired from triathlons after finishing first in his age group at the North American Ironman Championships.

Reviews

Garver (McNeely Chair in Thinking, St. John's Univ.) aims to show how Aristotle's Rhetoric has pertinence for the contemporary world. According to Garver, rhetoric-conceived of as the attempt to persuade in matters of civic concern-is a highly ethical activity in which the rhetorician gains agreement not through deception but as the result of character, emotion, and practical reason. This is a highly learned study, fully conversant with the Aristotelian corpus. Nevertheless, Garver fails to show that his extrapolation of Artistotle's thinking has contemporary application: his discussion throughout is highly abstract, using the language and concepts of ancient Greece and failing to translate into today's idiom and concerns. This study will be of use only to those with a specialist's knowledge of Aristotle and Greek philosophy; hence, only pertinent academic collections need consider it.-Leon H. Brody, U.S. Office of Personnel Mgt. Lib., Washington, D.C.