The highly accessible Aristotle: A Graphic Biography by Tassos Apostolidis, translated from the French by Tom Imber, may well surprise even those who believe they know a great deal about the philosopher.
Aristotle's student Theophrastus narrates from Athens in 315 BCE, and Greek-born artist Alecos Papadatos (Logicomix) beautifully differentiates between Theophrastus's present and the story he recounts of Aristotle's life (384-322 BCE) by alternating between pen and inks shaded in sky blue and sepia tones. Theophrastus begins by explaining to his students the geography and history that defined Aristotle and his ideas. Born in Macedonia, Aristotle was considered a "metic"--a noncitizen in Athens, where he was a student at Plato's Academy. Aristotle would later be chosen by Philip II to tutor his son, who would become Alexander the Great.
Profoundly affected by the changing politics of his time and his observation of power's wreckage, Aristotle not only came up with his famous "golden mean"--in which a person "chooses the middle ground between two extreme positions"--but also his conviction that "in a city governed by its laws, there must be three separate powers: the legislative, the executive, and the judiciary," the three branches of government that guide the U.S. today.
Author Tassos Apostolidis and illustrator Papadatos provide plenty of humor, too. Aristotle's attraction to beautiful Callida, for instance, inspires the definition of "syllogism." More than 2,000 years old, Aristotle's ideas are more relevant than ever. As Aristotle puts it in his passionate defense of Plato's Academy, "Philosophy makes us see the world as it is, but it also makes us see how it could or should be." A golden companion for our times. --Jennifer M. Brown, reviewer