Aristotle on Practical Truth

by C. M. M. Olfert

Overview

Aristotle's theories of truth, practical reasoning, and action are some of the most influential theories in the history of philosophy. It is surprising, then, that so little attention has been given to his notion of practical truth. In Aristotle on Practical Truth, C.M.M. Olfert gives the first book-length treatment of this notion and the role of truth in our practical lives overall. She offers a novel account of practical truth: practical truth is the distinguishing function (ergon) of our capacity for practical reason, and it is a special kind of truth which shares a standard of correctness with our desires. According to this account, practical truth is the truth about what is good simpliciter (haplôs) for a particular person in her particular situation. As such, it conforms to Aristotle's technical theory of truth. Olfert argues that, understood in this way, Aristotle's notion of practical truth is an attractive idea that illuminates the core of his practical philosophy. But it is also an idea that challenges a common view, often attributed to Aristotle, that in practical reasoning, we aim at action or acting well as our primary goals, while in theoretical reasoning, we aim primarily at truth and knowledge. Olfert shows that in dialogues such as Charmides, Protagoras, and Republic, Plato describes practical reasoning as being concerned equally and inseparably with grasping the truth and with acting well. She then argues that Aristotle develops this Platonic picture with his notion of practical truth, and with a technical notion of rational action as fitting ourselves to the world. Using key texts from the Nicomachean and Eudemian Ethics, as well as De Anima, Metaphysics, De Interpretatione and Categories, among others, Olfert demonstrates that practical truth deserves to be taken seriously as a central and plausible Aristotelian idea.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190695378
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	09/06/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

C. M. M. Olfert is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Tufts University. She holds a PhD in Philosophy from Columbia University and a B.A. in Philosophy from Mount Allison University. Her primary area of research is Ancient Philosophy with a focus on Ancient ethical theories (especially Aristotle's), but she also works on the history of skepticism, the history of ethics, and contemporary moral psychology and philosophy of action.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Plato on Practical Reason and Practical Knowledge Chapter 3: Aristotle on the Distinctness of Practical Reason Chapter 4: Aristotle's Conception of Practical Truth Chapter 5: Rational Action and Fitting Oneself to the World Chapter 6: Practical Truth and Learning from Pleasure Chapter 7: Practical Truth and New Pleasures Works Cited

Editorial Reviews

"[H]er book remains a valuable contribution for its articulation of the centrality of both truth and action to practical reason, and for the implications of this view for a number of areas of interest, including for the view of pleasure as partly cognitive in nature, a topic that takes up the last third of Olfert's stimulating book." —Journal of the History of Philosophy

"The book is written in an engaging style. ... The argument as a whole follows a well-conceived plan. I enjoyed reading the book, and expect others interested in Aristotle's ethics to do likewise. ... Whether readers will follow Olfert in promoting practical truth to one of the key notions in Aristotle's ethics - on a par with, if not above, deliberation, practical reason, and pleasure - will depend on the readers' other commitments. The great merit of Olfert's book is to spell out a plausible and in many parts quite persuasive way of doing so." — Joachim Aufderheide, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

From the Publisher