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Search results for epsiloniota,35 in Adler number:
Headword:
*ei)/dhsis
Adler number: epsiloniota,35
Translated headword: knowledge
Vetting Status: high
Translation: [Meaning] acquaintance/knowing.[1]
Knowledge [is] threefold.[2] For [I] science is called 'knowledge', as
Plato says in the
Phaedo: for to know is this, 'having acquired knowledge of something, to keep it and not to have lost it'.[3] Alternatively [II] [knowledge is] fuller acquaintance, whether without qualification or a more general [acquaintance] encompassing both of them, as
Aristotle says in the
Physics; since to know and to have a scientific understanding [are related] to all the sciences.[4] For by 'knowing' he means a full acquaintance, and by 'having a scientific knowledge' an accurate acquaintance [of something]. Alternatively [III] [the knowledge] which is said to be in common or in general in any acquaintance; the knowledge that [
Aristotle] took in the
Metaphysics.
*ei)/dhsis: h( gnw=sis. o(/ti h( ei)/dhsis tritth/. h( ga\r e)pisth/mh le/getai ei)/dhsis, w(/s fhsin o( *pla/twn e)n tw=| *fai/dwni: to\ ga\r ei)de/nai tou=to/ e)sti, to\ labo/nta tou e)pisth/mhn e)/xein kai\ mh\ a)pobeblh=sqai. h)\ h( o(losxereste/ra gnw=sis, h)\ a(plw=s h)\ koinote/ra, kai\ tou=to e(ka/teron perie/xousa, w(/s fhsin *)aristote/lhs e)n toi=s *fusikoi=s: e)peidh\ kai\ to\ ei)de/nai kai\ to\ e)pi/stasqai peri\ pa/sas ta\s e)pisth/mas. dia\ me\n ga\r tou= ei)de/nai th\n o(losxerh= gnw=sin shmai/nei, dia\ de\ tou= e)pi/stasqai th\n a)kribh=. h)\ th\n koinw=s e)pi\ pa/shs gnw/sews legome/nhn: h(\n e)n toi=s *meta\ ta\ fusika\ pare/laben.
Notes:
[1] Same glossing in
Hesychius and elsewhere.
[2] This second and fuller paragraph, introduced by
o(/ti, derives from John
Philoponus,
On Aristotle's de anima 22.5-13 Hayduck.
[3] In fact
Plato never uses the headword
ei)/dhsis, either in the
Phaedo or anywhere else; however, the last sentence is an almost literal quotation of
Phaedo 75D. The passage is part of the 'recollection argument' (
Phaedo 74Aff.; a full discussion on the issue of knowledge and recollection can be seen in Irwin [1995] 132-143).
Plato continues: 'do we not call the losing of knowledge "forgetting"?' (Grube's translation).
[4] Or 'scientific disciplines' (
e)pisth=mai). The Suda is paraphrasing the opening lines of
Aristotle's
Physics, 184a10-12: 'in any subject which has principles, causes, and elements, scientific knowledge and understanding stems from a grasp of them' (Waterfield's translation). The point seems to be this: a scientific knowledge (or 'to know' in the strict sense) implies having the principles, causes and elements of that we are accounting for. In other words, you know something strictly if and only if you have the principles or causal accounts that explain the thing at issue. For a very clear and detailed commentary on this passage, see Charlton (1992)
ad locum.
Irwin, T.H. Plato's Ethics (Oxford 1995)
Charlton, W. Aristotle: Physics, Books I and II (Oxford 1992)
Keywords: definition; philosophy
Translated by: Marcelo Boeri on 17 May 2001@11:09:33.
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