[lit-ideas] Aristotle & The Disciplines
- From: Walter Okshevsky <wokshevs@xxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2006 10:10:18 -0330 (NST)
On Sun, 29 Jan 2006, Phil Enns wrote:
> Quoting Aristotle, I wrote:
>
> "It is the mark of an educated man to seek as much precision in things
> of a given genus as their nature allows."
>
>
> to which Walter Okshevsky replied:
>
> "If you could quote chapter and verse, we would all appreciate it, I'm
> sure."
>
> Sure. N. Ethics 1094b 24.
>
The Ross translation of NE has: "... it is the mark of an educated man to
look for precision in each clas of things just so far as the nature of the
subject admits ..."
One difference between the translations is that the Ross translation
speaks of "the nature of the subject", while Phil's source speaks of
"nature" with reference to "things." As A completes the sentence by
illustrating his claim through the subjects or disciplines of rhetoric and
mathematics, and then goes on to speak of political science, I'm wondering
whether that reference to subjects is also in the former part of the sentence.
Moreover, the simple reference to an experience of things would seem to
contradict the view A expresses in the next paragraph, saying that the
experience of hearing a lecture in political science is of little if any
value to one not schooled in that subject/discipline. This raises the
more general question of what Aristotle believed the educational role of
the disciplines to be. If one is larded with a large quantity of
experience, and even if he has read much and attended many lectures,
could it yet be the case that he fails to be "an educated man" in A's
sense because his hearing, experiencing, etc. has not been trained by an
initiation into the disciplines, i.e, his experiences and discourses are
not "disciplined." And what would such knowledge or understanding look
like? Simply propositional? Procedural? Dispositional?
Anybody on the list for whom Greek isn't Greek to him/her?
Thanks, Phil, I had forgotten the exact reference to this intriguing
claim.
Walter Okshevsky
Memorial U
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