Lecture #32 Aristotle Intellectual Virtues Ultimate Human Goods & the Two Kinds of Virtue Moral Virtues Moral virtues are excellences of character. They perfect our wills or, perfect us with respect to our choices. Intellectual Virtues Intellectual virtues are excellences of mind. They perfect our intellect or, perfect us with respect to our thoughts. 3 A Three-Fold Division Knowing that (speculative knowledge) Knowing what to do (practical knowledge) Knowing how to make things (also practical knowledge) Arts are skills at making things. They result some product. Some cooperate with natural processes agriculture medicine education Some do not engineering Arts Arts: The Liberal Arts The Trivium Art Product Example The Trivium (Linguistic Arts) The Liberal Arts The Quadrivium (Mathematical Arts) Grammar Sentence All men are mortal. All men are mortal. Logic Syllogism Socrates is a man. (Argument) So, Socrates is mortal. Propositions Syllogisms Compositions Number Figure Pure Applied Pure Applied Rhetoric Composition Grammar Logic Rhetoric Arithmetic Music (Harmonics) Geometry Astronomy
8 The Quadrivium Prudence (= Practical Wisdom) Number Figure (discussed previously) In the Abstract 1 + 1 = 2 In Nature 9 focused on knowing that something is true The Other Three Virtues Speculative Reason: Propositional Attitudes Propositions Not In Mind In Mind Without Judgment With Judgment Without Certainty With Certainty On Slight Evidence On Good Evidence Ignorance Doubt Suspicion (Conjecture) Opinion Knowledge Intellectual Virtues Intellect is the ability (δύναμις dunamis) to know things. Knowledge (as on previous chart), or intellectual virtues generally (as dispositions), perfect the intellect, bringing it closer to the human τέλος telos. Three basic intellectual virtues Knowledge knowing that something is true Practical wisdom (φρονήσις phronēsis, Lat. prudentia) the rational disposition with acting (πρᾶζις praxis) praxis is characteristically human action Art (Gk. τέχνη technē, Lat. ars) the rational disposition associated with making Three virtues related to knowing that something is true Scientific Knowledge (ἐπιστήμη epistēmē, Lat. scientia) the demonstrative disposition knowledge on the basis of demonstration Intuitive Knowledgre (νοῦς nous, Lat. intellectus) the knowledge of first principles Wisdom (σοφία sophia, Lat. sapientia) knowledge about the most important things Scientific & Intuitive Knowledge Scientific knowledge is knowledge on the basis of a (logical) demonstration. Demonstration is a syllogism whose premises are true first & immediate (i.e., not based on further demonstration) prior to, better known than the conclusion cause of the conclusion Since the first principles cannot be known by demonstration, there must be some other form of knowledge that. Intuitive knowledge provides that other form of knowledge. It is direct (immediate) knowledge of first principles.
Scientific Knowledge & Intuition: Examples The postulates of Euclidean geometry are known by intuitive reason: I. Any two points can be joined by a straight line. II. Any straight line can be extended indefinitely in a straight line. III. Given any straight line, a circle can be drawn having the line as radius and one endpoint as center. The theorems of Euclidean geometry are scientific knowledge, since they are known on the basis of proof. I.47 [The Pythagorean Theorem:] In right-angled triangles the square on the side opposite the right angle equals the sum of the squares on the sides containing the right angle. Remark to XIII.18 No other figure, besides the said five figures [sc., pyramid, octahedron, cube, icosahedron, & dodecahedron; cf. XIII. 13-17], can be constructed by equilateral and equiangular figures equal to one another. Wisdom Knowledge about the most important things God Man 14 15 16 Scientific Knowledge & Modern Science What is the most certain form of knowledge? A popular current view: modern science Aristotle s view a form that is exemplified by mathematics (& possibly ethics) this can provide ( mathematical ) certainty but not by modern science which cannot provide that degree of certainty Facts: Warrant: Retroduction (Argument to the Best Explanation): The Form of Scientific Reasoning The best explanation of the facts is some story, theory, or causal connection. Conclusion: So, the story, theory, or causal connection is probably true. 17 18 The Range of Retroduction Establishing Causal Correlations (cf. Mill s Canons) E.g., in identifying the causes of disease Establishing a Theory E.g., Darwin s Theory of Evolution Dalton s Atomic Theory of Matter Providing a Story The authenticity of the Shroud of Turin Hypothetico-deductive Reasoning & the New Science In attempting to explain a set of facts, one proposes an hypothesis (theory) that explains the facts (i.e., a simple coherent account from which the facts can be predicted) what was really needed [in the nineteenth century] was a logical system that would allow physicists to truly understand why the atom behaved as it did, so that they could successfully predict not only the atom s observed behavior but new phenomena that had not yet been observed. Physicists call such a logical system a theory. This word is much misunderstood by non-scientists. When a physicist talks about a theory, he does not mean a hunch, guess, or unproven hypothesis. He means a logical system of ideas that ties together a large number of observations of the real world into a coherent and understandable pattern. Sheldon Glashow, Interactions, p. 51
20 Another form of Scientific Reasoning: Argument to the Best Explanation Retroduction: John Sacrobosco s Argument that the Earth is a Sphere Surface of the Sea Spherical. That the water has a bulge and is approximately round is shown thus: Let a signal be set up on the seacoast and a ship leave port and sail away so far that the eye of a person standing at the foot of the mast can no longer discern the signal. Yet if the ship is stopped, the eye of the same person, if he has climbed to the top of the mast, will see the signal clearly. Yet the eye of a person at the bottom of the mast ought to see the signal better than he who is at the top, as is shown by drawing straight lines from both to the signal. And there is no other explanation of this thing than the bulge of the water. For all other impediments are excluded, such as clouds and rising vapors. John Sacrobosco, Tractatus on the Sphere (c.1230) Structure of Argument Facts The best explanation of the facts is [some theory]. So probably, the theory is true. That the earth, too, is round is shown thus. The signs and stars do not rise and set the same for all men everywhere but rise and set sooner for those in the east than for those in the west; and of this there is no other cause than the bulge of the earth. Moreover, celestial phenomena evidence that they rise sooner for easterners than for westerners. For one and the same eclipse of the moon which appears to us in the first hour of the night appears to easterners about the third hour of the night, which proves that they had night and sunset before we did, of which setting the bulge of the earth is the cause. Facts: Warrant: Conclusion: The signs and stars do not rise and set the same for all men everywhere but rise and set sooner for those in the east than for those in the west. one and the same eclipse of the moon which appears to us in the first hour of the night appears to easterners about the third hour of the night, which proves that they had night and sunset before we did The best explanation of these facts is the earth bulges. So, the earth does bulge. 21 22 More Comprehensive Examples From Chemistry Facts Various quantitative laws about chemical combination The best explanation of those facts (John Dalton) Chemical atomic theory From Biology Facts The distribution of fossils in the geological column The geographical distribution of plants & animals Similarities of anatomy (especially in animals different in way of life) Similarities in embryological development (especially in animals different in morphology) The best explanation of those facts (Charles Darwin) Descent (of all living species) with modification from one or a few first species What can be more curious than that the hand of a man, formed for grasping, that of a mole for digging, the leg of the horse, the paddle of the porpoise, and the wing of the bat, should all be constructed on the same pattern, and should include the same bones, in the same relative positions? Charles Darwin Homology 23 24 Homology as Evidence for Common Ancestry Nothing can be more hopeless than to attempt to explain this similarity of pattern in members of the same class, by utility On the ordinary view of the independent creation of each being, we can only say that so it is; that it has so pleased the Creator to construct each animal and plant. The explanation is manifest on the theory of the natural selection of successive slight modifications, each modification being profitable in some way to the modified form. In changes of this nature, there will be little or no tendency to modify the original pattern, or to transpose parts. If we suppose that the ancient progenitor, the archetype as it may be called, of all mammals, had its limbs constructed on the existing general pattern, for whatever purpose they served, we can at once perceive the plain signification of the homologous construction of the limbs throughout the whole class. Charles Darwin The Facts of the Biogeographical Distribution of Organisms Why should the species which are supposed to have been created in the Galapagos Archipelago, and nowhere else, bear so plainly the stamp of affinity to those created in America? There is nothing in the conditions of life, in the geological nature of the islands, in their height or climate, or in the proportions in which the several classes are associated together, which closely resembles the conditions of the South American coast. In fact, there is a considerable dissimilarity in all these respects. On the other hand, there is a considerable degree of resemblance in the volcanic nature of the soil, in the climate, height, and size of the islands, between the Galapagos and Cape Verde Archipelagos: but what an entire and absolute difference in their inhabitants! The inhabitants of the Cape Verde Islands are related to those of Africa, like those of the Galapagos to America. Charles Darwin
25 26 The Facts of Biogeography as Evidence for Common Ancestry Facts, such as these, admit of no sort of explanation on the ordinary view of independent creation; whereas, on the view here maintained, it is obvious that the Galapagos Islands would be likely to receive colonists from America, whether by occasional means of transport or (though I do not believe in this doctrine) by formerly continuous land, and the Cape Verde Islands from Africa; such colonists would be liable to modification the principle of inheritance still betraying their original birthplace. Charles Darwin Comment: Obviously God could have created species distributed in just the way we find them Darwin s point is that, on his theory, we understand why they are so distributed On the theory of independent origin (whether by divine action or any other independent process), these facts would be unexplained Science & Experiment Mathematicians don t need to do experiments Why scientists do the best explanation may be better than any alternative yet proposed but there may be better options yet the best explanation should explain all the facts but perhaps there are facts that we do not yet know experimentation is designed to search for these (in particular, facts inconsistent with the theory) finding these refutes the theory (or forces its modification) the failure to find them (despite concerted efforts)» increases our confidence in the theory» never provides absolute certainty