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BRUELL, Christopher. Aristotle as Teacher: His Introduction to a Philosophic Science. South Bend, Ind.: St. Augustine's Press, 2014. vii + 268 pp.- Today, the majority of intellectuals across the disciplines believe that philosophy and science are not the same. These same intellectuals may be hard pressed to state what philosophy is exactly, but they are sure it is not science. One of the benefits of an intensive study of Aristotle's Metaphysics is that it provides a check against this modernist presumption that philosophy and science must be separate. A careful reading of the Metaphysics reveals that "whatever other purposes it may serve, it is intended also to introduce its readers to science and the problem of science." This will be a presentation of science different from the vision of science defined in the wake of Bacon, Hobbes, and Mill, according to whom science is enumeration, description, and prediction. For Aristotle, science (episteme) means something more comprehensive because science grasps first principles and causes. Science is necessary and universal knowledge of causes in their relation to substance. Since philosophy is the discovery of the causes that make such universal and necessary knowledge possible, philosophy and science signify the same habit of mind.
To make evident Aristotle's achievement, Bruell provides a detailed commentary, virtually a paragraph-by-paragraph analysis of the...