• Media type: E-Article
  • Title: Right Reason in Plato and Aristotle: On the Meaning of Logos
  • Contributor: Moss, Jessica
  • Published: Brill, 2014
  • Published in: Phronesis, 59 (2014) 3, Seite 181-230
  • Language: Not determined
  • DOI: 10.1163/15685284-12341266
  • ISSN: 1568-5284; 0031-8868
  • Keywords: History and Philosophy of Science ; Philosophy ; History
  • Origination:
  • University thesis:
  • Footnote:
  • Description: <jats:sec><jats:title><jats:bold>Abstract</jats:bold></jats:title><jats:p>Something Aristotle calls ‘right<jats:italic>logos</jats:italic>’ plays a crucial role in his theory of virtue. But the meaning of ‘<jats:italic>logos</jats:italic>’ in this context is notoriously contested. I argue against the standard translation ‘reason’, and—drawing on parallels with Plato’s work, especially the<jats:italic>Laws—</jats:italic>in favor of its being used to denote what transforms an inferior epistemic state into a superior one: an explanatory account. Thus Aristotelian<jats:italic>phronēsis</jats:italic>, like his and Plato’s<jats:italic>technē</jats:italic>and<jats:italic>epistēmē</jats:italic>, is a matter of grasping explanatory accounts: in this case, accounts that identify the right action and say why it is right. Arguably, Aristotelian rationality is a matter of being able to grasp accounts in general.</jats:p></jats:sec>