CY PLAN 115 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Nicomachean Ethics, Phronesis, Episteme
21 Apr 2019
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Plural rationalities (or, why we really need to be careful before we dismiss radically different arguments as irrational ) Aristotle"s 5 ways we come to understand from nichomachean ethics, book. Nous : fundamental ability to reason; common sense . Techne : understanding how to do something, but not necessarily why. Episteme (scientific logic): reasoning from unchanging, universal principles. Phronesis : (practical judgment): reasoning & deciding based on specific, non-repeating conditions. Sophia : (wisdom) reasoning based on reflective experience. Beyond aristotle: other possible ways of reasoning. Aesthesis : we know it to be true when it is beautiful. (einstein) Synthaesthesis : reconciliation of multiple rationalities to verify understanding. Ontologos : reliance on trust-relationships as basis for belief. Consider: chadwick"s aesthesis foul-smelling air as evidence of contagion versus snow"s systematic, field-observation-based epistemic process of arriving at the idea that seemingly-clean water might actually be the vehicle for contagion.
