NDPR Giles Pearson Aristotle on What Emotions Are

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May 18, 2026, 10:37:05 AMMay 18

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Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

2026.05.4 View this Review Online View Other NDPR Reviews

Giles Pearson, Aristotle on What Emotions Are, Oxford University Press, 2024, 400pp., $135.00 (hbk) ISBN 9780198879343.

Reviewed by Kristján Kristjánsson, University of Birmingham, U.K.

Giles Pearson’s book on Aristotle’s account of what emotions are is a majestic piece of work, which—irrespective of whether one agrees with every aspect of his exegesis—gives him pride of place among previous doyens in this area such as Fortenbaugh (2002) and Konstan (2006), and indeed makes this book the gold standard of any future work on the topic. That said, while Aristotelian aficionados will feel they have stumbled across an open goldmine, more practically minded emotion theorists may have to dig a bit deeper to appreciate the relevance of Pearson’s excavations. Broadly speaking, philosophers are interested in three main...