Continental Philosophy Review 35 (1):35-60 (2002)
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Abstract |
Ontology has been traditionally guided by sophia, a form of knowledge directed toward that which is eternal, permanent, necessary. This tradition finds an important early expression in the philosophical ontology of Aristotle. Yet in the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle's intense concern to do justice to the world of finite contingency leads him to develop a mode of knowledge, phronsis, that implicitly challenges the hegemony of sophia and the economy of values on which it depends. Following in the tradition of the early Heidegger's recognition of the ontological significance of Aristotle's Ethics and of Gadamer's appropriation of phronsis for hermeneutics, this article argues that an ontology guided by phronsis is preferable to one governed by sophia. Specifically, it suggests that by taking sophia as its paradigm, traditional philosophical ontology has historically been determined by a kind of knowledge that is incapable of critically considering the concrete historico-ethico-political conditions of its own deployment. This critique of sophia is accomplished by uncovering the economy of values that led Aristotle to privilege sophia over phronsis. It is intended to open up the possibility of developing an ontology of finite contingency based on phronsis. Such an ontology, because it is guided by and must remain responsible to the concrete individual with which it is engaged, would be ethical at its very core.
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Keywords | Aristotle Heidegger Gadamer phronesis sophia ontology |
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Reprint years | 2004 |
DOI | 10.1023/A:1015180421385 |
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References found in this work BETA
Wisdom and Wonder In Metaphysics A: 1–2.Denise Schaeffer - 1999 - Review of Metaphysics 52 (3):641 - 656.
Citations of this work BETA
Choice is Not True or False: The Domain of Rhetorical Argumentation. [REVIEW]Christian Kock - 2009 - Argumentation 23 (1):61-80.
Hermeneutics and the Ancient Philosophical Legacy: Hermeneia and Phronesis.Jussi Backman - 2016 - In Niall Keane & Chris Lawn (eds.), The Blackwell Companion to Hermeneutics. Malden, MA: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 22-33.
Phronēsis and the Art of Healing: Gadamer, Merleau-Ponty, and the Phenomenology of Equilibrium in Health.Donald A. Landes - 2015 - Human Studies 38 (2):261-279.
Deliberative Rhetoric: Arguing About Doing.Christian Kock (ed.) - 2017 - Windsor: University of Windsor.
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