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Colloquium 7

Colloquium 7 Professor Smith opposes the view that Aristotle's Organon is a Methodenlehre, which is calculated to show how scientists and philosophers should proceed in their inquiries. In the place of such a view, he puts the idea that the Organon aims at the char- acterization of epistemological virtue. Its goal is not to teach epistemological and methodological skills, but to effect a con- version to epistemologically virtuous life. The nature of the wis- dom so achieved he elucidates by comparing it to the clarification of the foundations of mathematics, which notori- ously does not make one a better theorem-prover. As an eacam- ple of an argument calculated to bring about such clarification he discusses Aristotle's argument against infinite regress in Post. An. A 19-22. According to Professor Smith, the argument has nothing to do with finding the first (atomic) premises of a sci- ence, but merely to establish that there must be such primitive premises. Prof. Smith does not in his paper analyze Aristotle's argument, but he does indicate some of Aristotle's theses. As to Aristotle's cryptic remarks at the end of An. Post. on how most general premises are established by means of nous, he relies on the http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy Online Brill

Colloquium 7

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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
Copyright 1995 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
1059-986X
eISSN
2213-4417
DOI
10.1163/2213441793X00167
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Professor Smith opposes the view that Aristotle's Organon is a Methodenlehre, which is calculated to show how scientists and philosophers should proceed in their inquiries. In the place of such a view, he puts the idea that the Organon aims at the char- acterization of epistemological virtue. Its goal is not to teach epistemological and methodological skills, but to effect a con- version to epistemologically virtuous life. The nature of the wis- dom so achieved he elucidates by comparing it to the clarification of the foundations of mathematics, which notori- ously does not make one a better theorem-prover. As an eacam- ple of an argument calculated to bring about such clarification he discusses Aristotle's argument against infinite regress in Post. An. A 19-22. According to Professor Smith, the argument has nothing to do with finding the first (atomic) premises of a sci- ence, but merely to establish that there must be such primitive premises. Prof. Smith does not in his paper analyze Aristotle's argument, but he does indicate some of Aristotle's theses. As to Aristotle's cryptic remarks at the end of An. Post. on how most general premises are established by means of nous, he relies on the

Journal

Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy Online – Brill

Published: Jan 1, 1993

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