The Four Dimensions of an Intellectual Virtue

Bibliographic Data

ID20064495
AuthorsMatthew Walker (0000-0001-5047-9724, corresponding author)
Year2015
Pages96-108
Publication date2015-10-05
Open AccessNo
TypeCHAPTER
VenueMoral and Intellectual Virtues in Western and Chinese Philosophy (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.4324/9781315683935-14
OpenAlexW2559119009
ISBN9781315683935
LanguageEN
Citations received11

This chapter examines key Confucian worries about the Aristotelian sophos as a model of human flourishing. For Aristotle, the intellectual virtues are the excellences of the human soul's authoritatively rational element. Aristotle ultimately divides this element into two components on the basis of their respective proper objects of cognition. Whereas the practical intellect cognizes contingent, variable matters, that is, matters about which agents engage in practical deliberation, the theoretical intellect cognizes eternal, unchanging objects. Aristotle goes on to identify multiple virtues of the theoretical intellect. He defines intellectual insight as that excellence in virtue of which one is capable of an intuitive and non-demonstrative grasp of first principles. He is aware that his claims for sophia's uselessness raise concerns. In recently authenticated fragments of the lost Protrepticus, a popular exhortation to philosophy, Aristotle responds to the worry that theoretical wisdom lacks choiceworthiness because of its uselessness

Epistemology · Sociology · Virtue · Classical Philosophy and Thought · Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics · Philosophical Ethics and Theory · Philosophy · Psychology

Tools

Open DOI