[MaFLa] Benjamin Morison (Princeton): Practical and Theoretical Reasoning in Aristotle

[István Bodnár]

Benjamin Morison (Princeton): Practical and Theoretical Reasoning in
Aristotle

2018. február 23., péntek, 17:30, Nádor u. 15, I. em. 101 (Quantum) terem

(Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies, CEU)

 

 

Aristotle theorises that there are two parts of the soul that engage in
thought: the part that deals with contingent, everyday, affairs, and the
part which deals with theoretical, scientific, matters. He posits two
different kinds of reasoning, each one suited to a different part:
deliberative reasoning for the part dealing with contingent matters, and
syllogistic reasoning for the part dealing with theoretical matters. The
types of reasoning involved are very different: one is essentially means-end
reasoning, and the other is deductively valid logical reasoning. However,
there are several structural similarities between the two types of
reasoning: both are types of reasoning concerned with discerning causes,
since in both domains, knowledge of a proposition consists in grasping its
explanation, and both types of reasoning require something called noûs, a
cognitively demanding sort of knowledge whose domain is propositions which
are the starting-points of those explanations. In this talk, I explore the
similarities and differences between theoretical and practical noûs, and
argue that each is a necessary constituent of achieving the highest possible
form of knowledge in the relevant domain.

Benjamin Morison studied in Oxford with Jonathan Barnes and Michael Frede,
was assistant at the University of Geneva before returning to Oxford in 1997
as a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow, and subsequently Michael Cohen
Fellow in Philosophy at Exeter College (2001-9). Since 2009, he has been
Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University, and has directed the
Interdisciplinary Program in Classical Philosophy since 2014. He has held
visiting positions at Princeton University, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin,
Renmin University in Beijing, and the Sorbonne Paris-IV. Publications
include "On Location: Aristotle’s Concept of Place" (OUP, 2002),
contributions to the Cambridge Companion to Galen, the Stanford Encyclopedia
entry on Sextus Empiricus, and numerous papers on Aristotle. He is
co-editing with Hendrik Lorenz the Symposium Aristotelicum volume on
"Eudemian Ethics book II". He works primarily on logic, epistemology,
physics, and geometry in the ancient world.

https://cems.ceu.edu/events/2018-02-23/cems-colloquium-practical-and-theoret
ical-reasoning-aristotle-benjamin-morison

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