Aristotle on Practical Reason

For Aristotle, phronēsis , the excellence of the practical intellect, is two-fold, consisting of a true conception of the end to be achieved by action and correct deliberation about the means to achieve that end. Three accounts have been given as to how that true conception of the end is acquired: i) by virtue of character, ii) by dialectic, i.e. critical reasoning concerning authoritative beliefs, and iii) by induction from data of experience. Virtue of character is the proper responsiveness of the appetitive element in the soul to reason; it is itself a rational state, presupposing a prior grasp of the end by the intellect. Dialectic and experience are each required for the attainment of that grasp, the role of the former being apparently to formulate more or less indeterminate principles that it is the task of moral experience to make determinate.

Action (physics) · Character (mathematics) · Deliberation · Dialectic · Epistemology · Excellence · GRASP · Intellect · Political science · Rationality · Soul · Task (project management) · Virtue · Classical Philosophy and Thought · Computer Science · Engineering · Law · Mathematics · Philosophy · Psychology

• Aristotle’s conception of practical wisdom and what it means for moral education in schools

  Atli Harðarson•Educational Philosophy and Theory•2019

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