Doxa and EpistÄmÄ in Platoâs Theaetetus and Aristotleâs Posterior Analytics

Walter Cavini

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Chapter 14 Doxa and EpistÄmÄ in Platoâs Theaetetus and Aristotleâs Posterior Analytics

In: New Explorations in Plato's Theaetetus

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Walter Cavini

Walter Cavini
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 307â324

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004516014_016

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Abstract

Platoâs Theaetetus and Aristotleâs Posterior Analytics are the two greatest works that antiquity has handed down to us concerning the problem of knowledge and of scientific knowledge in particular. The two works probably date to much the same period. In the first part of this essay I examine a chapter of the Posterior Analytics (I 33) in which Aristotle establishes a clear difference between epistÄmÄ and doxa, and between their respective objects, implicitly rejecting the third definition of epistÄmÄ that we find in the Theaetetus, according to which epistÄmÄ is a kind of doxa. For Aristotle, instead, epistÄmÄ and doxa are two species of the genus hypolÄpsis, where âhypolÄpsisâ is a new technical term introduced by Aristotle to designate simply holding something to be true and can be translated with âbeliefâ, while doxa is a mere opinion, that is, believing something to be true without knowing it. In this way it is clear that, for Aristotle, knowledge cannot be an opinion. In the second part, I examine the Aristotelian definitions of knowing in the Posterior Analytics (I 2) and in the Physics (I 1), noting that they are in fact circular. My conclusion is quite skeptical: Aristotle is simply telling us that scientific knowledge, whatever it might be, is knowledge of causes, and this is something that he takes over already starting with Platoâs Gorgias and Meno. But, at the end of the day, we do not have an explicit, non-circular, definition of epistÄmÄ neither in Plato nor in Aristotle.

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New Explorations in Plato's Theaetetus

Belief, Knowledge, Ontology, Reception

Series:Â Brill's Plato Studies Series, Volume: 10

Cover New Explorations in Plato's <i>Theaetetus</i>

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004516014

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 13 May 2022

Subjects
- Classical Studies
  - Ancient Philosophy
- Philosophy

Front Matter

Section 1 The Theaetetus and Plato

Section 2 Relativism between Ontology and Epistemology

Section 3 Maieutics, Sophistry, Philosophy

Section 4 Images of the Cognitive Soul

Section 5 Belief, Knowledge, Ontology

Section 6 The Theaetetus beyond Plato

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Chapter 14 Doxa and EpistÄmÄ in Platoâs Theaetetus and Aristotleâs Posterior Analytics

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New Explorations in Plato's Theaetetus

Belief, Knowledge, Ontology, Reception

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Chapter 14 Doxa and EpistÄmÄ in Platoâs Theaetetus and Aristotleâs Posterior Analytics