scholarly journals Truth in Practical Reason: Practical and Assertoric Truth in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michail Pantoulias ◽  
Vasiliki Vergouli ◽  
Panagiotis Thanassas
Keyword(s):  
Practical Reason ◽  
Practical Reasoning ◽  
Nicomachean Ethics ◽  
Controversial Subject ◽  
Practical Syllogism ◽  
The Subject ◽  
De Interpretatione

Truth has always been a controversial subject in Aristotelian scholarship. In most cases, including some well-known passages in the Categories, De Interpretatione and Metaphysics, Aristotle uses the predicate ‘true’ for assertions, although exceptions are many and impossible to ignore. One of the most complicated cases is the concept of practical truth in the sixth book of Nicomachean Ethics: its entanglement with action and desire raises doubts about the possibility of its inclusion to the propositional model of truth. Nevertheless, in one of the most extensive studies on the subject, C. Olfert has tried to show that this is not only possible but also necessary. In this paper, we explain why trying to fit practical truth into the propositional model comes with insurmount­able problems. In order to overcome these problems, we focus on multiple aspects of practical syllogism and correlate them with Aristo­tle’s account of desire, happiness and the good. Identifying the role of such concepts in the specific steps of practical reasoning, we reach the conclusion that practical truth is best explained as the culmination of a well-executed practical syllogism taken as a whole, which ultimately explains why this type of syllogism demands a different approach and a different kind of truth than the theoretical one.

scholarly journals Aristotle’s Akrasia: The Role of Potential Knowledge and Practical Syllogism

2018 ◽  
pp. 233-238
Author(s):  
Imge Oranli
Keyword(s):  
Practical Reasoning ◽  
Nicomachean Ethics ◽  
Actual Knowledge ◽  
Practical Syllogism ◽  
Epistemological Basis

In Nicomachean Ethics VII Aristotle describes akrasia as a disposition. Taking into account that it is a disposition, I argue that akrasia cannot be understood on an epistemological basis alone, i.e., it is not merely a problem of knowledge that the akratic person acts the ways he does, but rather one is akratic due to a certain kind of habituation, where the person is not able to activate the potential knowledge s/he possesses. To stress this point, I focus on the gap between potential knowledge and its activation, whereby I argue that the distinction between potential and actual knowledge is at the center of the problem of akrasia. I suggest that to elaborate on this gap, we must go beyond the limits of Nicomachean Ethics to Metaphysics IX, where we find Aristotle’s discussion of the distinction between potentiality and actuality. I further analyze the gap between potential and actual knowledge by means of Aristotle’s discussion of practical syllogism, where I argue that akrasia is a result of a conflict in practical reasoning. I conclude my paper by stressing that for the akratic person the action is determined with respect to the conclusion of the practical syllogism, where the conclusion is produced by means of a ‘conflict’ between the universal opinion which is potential and the particular opinion which is appetitive.

Affirmative Action and Higher Education

2020 ◽  
pp. 19-40
Author(s):  
J. Scott Carter ◽  
Cameron D. Lippard
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Affirmative Action ◽  
Controversial Subject ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Government ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Government ◽  
The 1960S

This chapter discusses the ever-evolving role of race in politics in the history of the US. How the government handled racial and other discrimination has not always been effective. It was not until the 1960s that the US government attempted to make a concrete effort to minimize racial discrimination, which of course effected enrollment at elite US colleges and universities. This chapter then goes onto to discuss the deep ideological divide over affirmative action that exists in the country and provides public opinion data on where whites stand with the subject. This chapter demonstrates that indeed affirmative action is a controversial subject that receives little support from whites.

Practical Reasoning

2019 ◽  
pp. 117-154
Author(s):  
John Schwenkler
Keyword(s):  
Practical Reasoning ◽  
Close Attention ◽  
Practical Syllogism ◽  
The Difference

This chapter discusses the argument of Sections 33-43 of G.E.M. Anscombe’s Intention. It begins by presenting Anscombe’s argument that the premises in a practical syllogism, i.e. the considerations from which a person reasons in deciding what she will do, are not supposed to provide a proof of the conclusion that is drawn from them. Close attention is paid to the difference between Anscombe’s position and that of R.M. Hare, and several objections to her argument are considered. Following this, the chapter explores Anscombe’s Aristotelian account of practical reasoning as a way of calculating means to an end. The chapter also discusses the role of desire in practical reasoning, the thesis that desire for an object involves seeing it “under the aspect of some good”, and Anscombe’s argument that a practical syllogism represents a means–end order that is present in action itself.

The Practical Syllogism and Akrasia

1991 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 299-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis McKerlie
Keyword(s):  
General Theory ◽  
Practical Reason ◽  
Practical Reasoning ◽  
Practical Syllogism ◽  
Precise Sense ◽  
Rational Explanation ◽  
Motivational Strength ◽  
Philosophical Importance

Aristotle is often credited with views about practical reasoning, desire, and action collectively referred to as the theory of the practical syllogism.Some commentators are skeptical about the existence of any such general theory, but most would agree that a theory of some sort is outlined in the De Motu Animalium and that it influences Aristotle’s account of akrasia in the icomachean Ethics.This paper will begin by describing the most important ideas in the De Motu Animalium discussion of the practical syllogism. The ideas are simple but I think that their implications and philosophical importance have not been appreciated. I will suggest that the practical syllogism is Aristotle’s model for the rational explanation of action. Other commentators have made this claim, but I think that it can be given a very precise sense. Aristotle thinks that an action can be rationally explained if the agent acts in response to the strength of the reasons that he sees for acting. The practical syllogism is an argument that expresses the reasons in favor of the action, so if the agent acts for those reasons the action is explained by the practical syllogism. The second part of the paper considers the work that the practical syllogism does in Aristotle’s account of akrasia. I will argue that in akrasia—at least in the most extreme kind of akrasia—the agent acts intentionally to satisfy a desire but the action cannot be explained by a practical syllogism. Aristotle distinguishes between explanation by the motivational strength of desires and explanation by a practical syllogism. The last part of this paper comments on David Charles’s interpretation of Aristotle’s views about desire, practical reason, and akrasia. Charles discusses the traditionally disputed questions in a provocative way, and more importantly his suggestions fit together into a complex and philosophically sophisticated reading of Aristotle. I disagree with his most important claims, but I can best explain and defend my own interpretation by contrasting it with his.

scholarly journals Epicureanism and Skepticism about Practical Reason

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-208
Author(s):  
Christopher Frugé
Keyword(s):  
Practical Reason ◽  
Practical Reasoning ◽  
Existence Condition ◽  
The Subject ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
The One

AbstractEpicureans believe that death cannot harm the one who dies because they hold the existence condition, which states that a subject is able to be harmed only while they exist. I show that on one reading of this condition death can, in fact, make the deceased worse off because it is satisfied by the deprivation account of death’s badness. I argue that the most plausible Epicurean view holds the anti-modal existence condition, according to which no merely possible state of affairs can be good or bad relative to the subject who dies. I go on to show how this condition, as well as any other condition that denies the deprivation account, results in skepticism about practical reason. Thus, the Epicurean faces a dilemma. Either our practical reasoning is hopelessly mistaken or death can make us worse off. Given that our practical reasoning seems at least mildly reliable, we should conclude that death can make us worse off.

scholarly journals I. Kant's Copernican revolution in the context of the concept of subjectivation

2021 ◽  
pp. 42-50
Author(s):  
Sergei Sergeevich Rusakov
Keyword(s):  
Immanuel Kant ◽  
Practical Reason ◽  
Philosophical Concept ◽  
Modern Age ◽  
Copernican Revolution ◽  
French Researcher ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Further Development ◽  
Philosophical Nature

This article is dedicated to correlation between the concept of subjectivation of M. Foucault and the concept of subject of I. Kant. Due to the fact that the project of studying the forms of subjectivity has not been accomplished, the artistic legacy of the French scholar has left numerous questions still to be answered. One of such questions is the transformation of the subject that took place in Modern Age, and the reasons for the elimination of spiritual practices of subjectivation. The work is of historical-philosophical nature, and employs analytical, critical and comparative methods of research applicable to the texts of Michel Foucault and Immanuel Kant, as well as to a number of foreign (G. Deleuze, A. Renaut, T. Adorno) and domestic (M. Mamardashvili, F. Girenok, S. Khoruzhiy) analytical works. The novelty of this research consists in the analysis of the philosophical concept of M. Foucault in the specific context of transcendental philosophy of I. Kant. The author distinguishes between what the French researcher called the metaphysical subject of Descartes and the transcendental subject of Kant. The following conclusions were formulated: the acknowledgement of irrevocable loss of the elements of subjectivation in the Kantian concept of subject, which were reflected in the doctrine of Cartesius; claim of the autonomy of the Kantian subject, founded on the rejection of metaphysics and exclusion of heteronomy as a characteristic of subjectivity; confirmation of the key role of practical reason as the factor of further development of the concept of subject towards enhancing the autonomy and gnoseocentrism.

Top-Down Processing and Visual Reorientation Illusions in a Virtual Reality Environment

2004 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 143-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fred W. Mast ◽  
Charles M. Oman
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Line Length ◽  
Perceptual Cues ◽  
Virtual Reality Environment ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Test Conditions ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Processing Mechanisms

The role of top-down processing on the horizontal-vertical line length illusion was examined by means of an ambiguous room with dual visual verticals. In one of the test conditions, the subjects were cued to one of the two verticals and were instructed to cognitively reassign the apparent vertical to the cued orientation. When they have mentally adjusted their perception, two lines in a plus sign configuration appeared and the subjects had to evaluate which line was longer. The results showed that the line length appeared longer when it was aligned with the direction of the vertical currently perceived by the subject. This study provides a demonstration that top-down processing influences lower level visual processing mechanisms. In another test condition, the subjects had all perceptual cues available and the influence was even stronger.

The future role of the psychiatrist in Europe – a UEMS perspective

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (01) ◽  
pp. 35-42
Author(s):  
M. Hermans
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Professionals ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
General Interest ◽  
Future Role ◽  
Personal Opinion ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Many

SummaryThe author presents his personal opinion inviting to discussion on the possible future role of psychiatrists. His view is based upon the many contacts with psychiatrists all over Europe, academicians and everyday professionals, as well as the familiarity with the literature. The list of papers referred to is based upon (1) the general interest concerning the subject when representing ideas also worded elsewhere, (2) the accessibility to psychiatrists and mental health professionals in Germany, (3) being costless downloadable for non-subscribers and (4) for some geographic aspects (e.g. Belgium, Spain, Sweden) and the latest scientific issues, addressing some authors directly.

Alignment

2016 ◽  
pp. 33-50
Author(s):  
Pier Giuseppe Rossi
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Enactive Approach ◽  
The World ◽  
Strategic Role ◽  
Education Today ◽  
Current Context ◽  
The Subject

The subject of alignment is not new to the world of education. Today however, it has come to mean different things and to have a heuristic value in education according to research in different areas, not least for neuroscience, and to attention to skills and to the alternation framework.This paper, after looking at the classic references that already attributed an important role to alignment in education processes, looks at the strategic role of alignment in the current context, outlining the shared construction processes and focusing on some of the ways in which this is put into effect.Alignment is part of a participatory, enactive approach that gives a central role to the interaction between teaching and learning, avoiding the limits of behaviourism, which has a greater bias towards teaching, and cognitivism/constructivism, which focus their attention on learning and in any case, on that which separates a teacher preparing the environment and a student working in it.

TheOrvosi Hetilap (Hungarian Medical Journal)in the network of medical journals

2014 ◽  
Vol 155 (22) ◽  
pp. 876-879
Author(s):  
András Schubert
Keyword(s):  
Medical Journal ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Knowledge Network ◽  
Scientific Journals ◽  
Scientific Enterprise ◽  
Medical Journals ◽  
The Subject

The role of networks is swiftly increasing in the production and communication of scientific knowledge. Network aspects have, therefore, an ever growing importance in the analysis of the scientific enterprise, as well. The present paper demonstrates some techniques of studying the network of scientific journals on the subject of seeking the position of Orvosi Hetilap (Hungarian Medical Journal) in the international journal network. Orv. Hetil., 2014, 155(22), 876–879.

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