Saphêneia in Aristotle
‘Clarity’, ‘Precision’, and ‘Knowledge’
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 23201797 |
|---|---|
| Authors | J H Lesher (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2010 |
| Volume | 43 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Publication date | 2010-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Apeiron (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0003-6390 • E-ISSN: 2156-7093 |
| Publisher | Walter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1515/apeiron.2010.43.4.143 |
| OpenAlex | W2312348436 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 2 |
Aristotle authored an infl uential account of the factors that can either enhance or detract from sapheneia (usually translated into English as ‘clarity’) in thought or expression. He also criticized various earlier thinkers for failing to make things saphes or ‘clear’, identifi ed truth and sapheneia as the twin standards by which his own philosophical accounts ought to be judged, and introduced a well-known distinction between ‘things clearer (saphestera) to us’ and ‘things clearer (saphestera) by nature’. It would appear then that clarity was a major Aristotelian concern — and to some degree it was. But in what follows I will try to show that what Aristotle often had in mind when he spoke about sapheneia was not clarity but either a detailed and accurate accounting of the phenomena or the attainment of full scientifi c knowledge.
CLARITY · Epistemology · Chemistry · Classical Philosophy and Thought · Historical Philosophy and Science · Philosophy · Psychology
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,33 |
| Citation span | 2017 - 2023 (7) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |