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Aristotle's Practical Epistemology

Dhananjay Jagannathan (, Columbia University)

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Hardback

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English
Oxford University Press Inc
04 February 2025
Aristotle's ethical writings are among the most influential in the history of Western thought. Key to these writings is the idea that some people better understand how they should act in order to lead successful lives as part of their communities. Their knowledge is called practical wisdom (phron=esis). Some of what Aristotle says suggests that this kind of knowledge is intuitive or unreflective, but at other times it seems abstruse and theoretical.

Aristotle's Practical Epistemology presents a novel interpretation of Aristotle's influential account of practical wisdom (phron=esis) by situating the topic within his broader theory of ethical knowledge. Interpreters have long struggled to make sense of the disparate features Aristotle seems to attribute to practical wisdom, particularly its role in bringing about individual choices and actions in the domain of ethical action, of theoretical wisdom (sophia) and craft (tekhn=e). Dhananjay Jagannathan contends that these features can be united when we see that phron=esis is a distinctively practical form of understanding.
By:  
Imprint:   Oxford University Press Inc
Country of Publication:   United States
Dimensions:   Height: 212mm,  Width: 148mm,  Spine: 23mm
Weight:   367g
ISBN:   9780197781487
ISBN 10:   0197781489
Pages:   216
Publication Date:  
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Undergraduate
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Introduction Chapter 1: Deflationism about Practical Knowledge Chapter 2: Ethical Experience in the Nicomachean Ethics Chapter 3: The Nature of the Virtues of Thought Chapter 4: Practical Understanding and Ethical Science Chapter 5: Knowledge of Practical Universals Chapter 6: Political Wisdom

Dhananjay Jagannathan was trained in classics and philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin; Balliol College, Oxford; St John's College, Cambridge; and the University of Chicago, where he received his PhD in 2017. He previously taught at Dartmouth College and has been on the faculty of Columbia University since 2017. His articles have appeared in Philosophy & Literature, Apeiron, Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie, and Ergo. [He is currently Assistant Professor of Philosophy, and Director of Graduate Studies of the Classical Studies Program, at Columbia University.]

Reviews for Aristotle's Practical Epistemology

In this clearly written book, Jagannathan (Columbia Univ.) places himself in the center of that discussion. He argues that phronesis is clearly knowledge, but it is not scientific knowledge. It is not deductive, and its conclusions are not necessary truths (as, for instance, the laws of physics). It is different kind of knowledge-a knowledge that can motivate people to act wisely and whose conclusions are what would be the goals of a wise person. Jagannathan's book, though not the last word, has made a real contribution to the historic discussion of what makes wisdom practical. * J. F. Richeimer, Choice *


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