A Critical Review of 'If Aristotle Ran General Motors' by Morris

This assignment is a book review of Tom Morris's 'If Aristotle Ran General Motors,' which explores the application of ancient philosophical principles to modern business challenges. The review focuses on the book's central thesis that truth, goodness, beauty, and unity are essential for individual and organizational excellence. It discusses how Morris links Aristotle's teachings to contemporary issues, emphasizing the importance of employee well-being and ethical leadership. The review highlights the book's key themes, including the integration of Eastern and Western values, and reflects on the author's lucid writing style and practical approach. It concludes that the book offers valuable insights for modern leaders seeking to create a more humane and effective work environment. Desklib provides a platform to access similar assignments and study tools for students.

Running head: BOOK REVIEW
REVIEW OF “IF ARISTOTLE RAN GENERAL MOTORS”
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1BOOK REVIEW
Tom Morris is one of the most active philosopher in the world as he has the ability to connect the
greatest wisdom from past to the challenges of the present. The book namely, ‘If Aristotle ran General
motors’ blown the corporate world as he used his powerful philosophy to address his audience such as
general motors, Toyota, IBM, the US air force and many more organizations. The prime aim of this
assignment is to review this book, including several points such as thesis r the point of view of the author
and the most important themes presented in the book, further, the things learnt from the book and its
implication in recent work setting will be discussed. Small reflection by evaluating the work of the author
will also be included.
Thesis
According to Tom Morris, there are four ideas discovered by the great thinkers of past inspiring
the present. These four basic ideas undergird the complete forms of human superiority. This philosophy is
similar for our families, relations, friendship and neighborhood as well. These basic ideas are truth,
goodness, beauty and unity. These four pillars help to carry out strong interpersonal relations and if these
are ignored in any relation, then tremendous and disastrous results occurs. The book ‘If Aristotle ran
General Motors’ follows this general thesis and states that life has no meaning unless it is given the
intelligence and purposive agent. The thesis is pertinent to business and everyday life at the same time.
The book talks about individual excellence and through this pathway achieving organizational excellence
and social harmony. The prime aspect that differs this book from other business genre books are teachings
of Aristotle. The unusual ability of Tom Morris to link the teachings of Aristotle to the new age
complications is exceptional. Author uses Aristotle and other sage philosophers example as CEO of chief
companies ad their way to handle the problems, these companies are facing. The author presented a way
to all the modern day company leaders to deal with situations where a clash between employer and
employee could occur and the relationship is hampered. Aristotle as a CEO of the company thought about
comfort and benefits of the employees because this trait can lead to generate trustworthy and honesty in
his employees. Such traits are beneficial for the employees as well as the company. For example he states

2BOOK REVIEW
in the book that, “If Aristotle ran General Motors; I believe that he would insist on respecting and
nurturing these four vital qualities at every level and in every way” (Morris, 2013, p. 98).
Important theme
The prime principle of the book, which evolved after reading it, was about four pillars of the
behavioral ideas. These ideas was proposed according to the teachings of Aristotle. Several sage
philosophers have left so many teachings for us to understand the value of life, relationships,
communication and honesty. The idea presented in this book connected the wisdom of these philosophers
to find out the wealth of inner self and that of the business. Truth, beauty, goodness and unity are the four
pillars this book talks about and discusses the goodness of these four aspects in daily life as well as in
business. Truth is something, that is the basis of any relationship and the intellectual dimension
experience needs that truth to develop. The aesthetic dimension of us needs beauty, moral dimension
needs goodness and the spiritual dimension needs harmony, unity or connectedness. These aspects lead to
create different personality traits in person and the balanced person after that can help the organization to
reach the heights of success with his dedication, willpower and honesty. Therefore, the organization and
the employee both are benefitted with such philosophical policy.
Therefore, this book points out these four aspect with the philosophy of Aristotle as the CEO of
the general motors organization. his philosophy point outs these aspects as the basis of human
relationships and the negligence of it leading to disastrous results in corporate as well as personal life. For
example, the book mentions that if Aristotle ran the general motors company, he would have insisted
people to respect and nurture these four vital ideas to lead a meaningful life (Morris, 2013).
Things learned from this book and its implication in recent world
This book help us to understand the point of view of such sage philosophers such as Aristotle to
run an organization. The author further uses teachings from the Bible, Confucius, and many more
philosophers to teach the ethics to lead a respectful and satisfactory life. The author clearly proofs the

3BOOK REVIEW
saying that there is nothing new under the sun and the lacking presents in our thinking and way to apply
these principles in business and personal life. This book teaches us the way to be illuminated with our
knowledge and wisdom and spread that illumination in the world. the material present in the book
balances eastern values and western thinking and as the book states,” the external world never takes us to
nirvana, and it basically drives us crazy”. Author mentions that we are unable to deal with the future
events and we should focus on our present to lead a peaceful and respectful life. “Unappreciated people
feel little or no sense of loyalty or camaraderie toward those who are ignoring them, and very little
responsibility”, said the author Tom Morris. As the America’s most inspiring philosopher, the author
presented the views of such great philosophers in a lucid and easy way so that everyone can understand
the basic nature of life and the way people can comply with it to achieve success. As per the author,
business is not just about revenue, it is associated with development of human and providing the needy
with the essential things to lead a satisfactory life. The protagonist of this book, Aristotle, focused on
issues that can help to influence four aspects of the employees. This wise decision is for betterment of the
both employee and the company as honesty, trustworthy, motivated and driven employees are assets for
any company. This point of view helped to learn the basic idea for business and development.
Reflection
According to my readings, Tom Morris has used very lucid and simple language to make us
understand the complex side of life. The language of this book puts maximum effect on people as the
connection that the book creates with the reader is excellent and the best part is practical application of
ethics in everyday life. He explains this basic truth with the help of different stories and analogies. I was
amused with the comparison of the philosophical point of view, that was given hundreds of years ago, and
that were completely matched with the present scenario. The philosophical point of view of business and
fusion of morality and honesty makes it different from other books. According to Reaser & Myrick
(2015), books, which presents their thoughts in lucid and easy manner, are best to make the audience
aware and spread the awareness or message the book wants to share. The basic principles presented in the

4BOOK REVIEW
book that is truth, goodness, beauty and unity are ultimate truth in any era and hence, the audience that it
targets are consistent.
I was amused with the comparison of the philosophical point of view, that was given hundreds of
years ago, and that were completely matched with the present scenario. The philosophical point of view
of business and fusion of morality and honesty makes it different from other books. According to Reaser
& Myrick (2015), books, which presents their thoughts in lucid and easy manner, are best to make the
audience aware and spread the awareness or message the book wants to share. The basic principles
presented in the book that is truth, goodness, beauty and unity are ultimate truth in any era and hence, the
audience that it targets are consistent. I was amused with the comparison of the philosophical point of
view, that was given hundreds of years ago, and that were completely matched with the present scenario.
The philosophical point of view of business and fusion of morality and honesty makes it different from
other books. According to Reaser & Myrick (2015), books, which presents their thoughts in lucid and
easy manner, are best to make the audience aware and spread the awareness or message the book wants to
share. The basic principles presented in the book that is truth, goodness, beauty and unity are ultimate
truth in any era and hence, the audience that it targets are consistent. This is the reason that I am
influenced with the philosophy the book provided. The role of sage philosophers as business coordinators
or CEOs of leading companies are interesting. These companies have major role in the society and this is
why they should be polite, true to their words, and be forgiving. Unlike the present scenario, where the
leaders are utilizing the employees just to earn revenue for their leading company. These modern day
leaders are using their employees for their benefit and they do not hesitate to take any decision, which
hampers their relation with the employees. On the other hand, author in this book has presented the ideal
way to deal with situations that can affect the employer-employee relationship. Using different epic and
historical person, the author has tried to influence the modern day leaders to maintain a humanly relation
with their employees and think about their benefits as well. Therefore, according to me, the book has

5BOOK REVIEW
presented the past philosophy with the blend of modern business problems, which is appealing in every
context.

6BOOK REVIEW
References
Morris, T. (2013). If aristotle ran general motors. New York: Henry Holt and Company.
https://books.google.co.in/books?
id=gZPqAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA90&lpg=PA90&dq=if+aristotle+ran+general+motors+the
sis&source=bl&ots=j2XPDARg4A&sig=-YcaeV5PVHDDQVdlSVAl-
YUkOjo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiWy43o8-
fXAhXDKo8KHQQHAdMQ6AEITjAG#v=onepage&q=if%20aristotle%20ran
%20general%20motors%20thesis&f=true
Reaser, J., & Myrick, C. (2015). Writing Language‐based Trade Books: Making Linguistics
Accessible to Lay Audiences. Language and Linguistics Compass, 9(5), 198-208.