Reasons to Read Aristotle

Aristotle is a tough read. But is it worth it?

Aristotle’s work serves as the foundation for many great thinkers. Thinkers like St. Thomas Aquinas and William Shakespeare. His works are dense and aren’t always the easiest to read. You can’t read Aristotle when you’re tired. You won’t get anything out of it. You’ll need your entire brain bandwidth devoted to a reading session with Uncle Ari.

Here are some reasons why reading Aristotle is worth it despite how dense his works are:

1. To understand the origins of thought. Aristotle gets into some deep philosophical territory about thought. His theory on this can help you see routine events from an entirely new perspective.
2. To improve your own thinking. Aristotle is the father of logic. Improving your understanding of logic can help you in any aspect of your life. He solidified the syllogistic framework upon which all other types of logic is built.
3. For the challenge. Reading Aristotle helps make any other reading easier. You become a more focused reader because you’ve had practice close reading the dense passages. It’s tough and sometimes I end up just looking for a Cliff’s notes summary. But there is value in working through the original text. Even if that value is not related to the content of his works.

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