Reflexivity and Self-Knowledge in Aristotle
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.53382/issn.2735-6140.105Keywords:
Self-knowledgeAbstract
From ancient times to the present day, self-knowledge has been understood on the basis of a particular model of reflexivity that goes back to Aristotle’s description of the type of activity that divinity essentially carries out. However, little attention has been paid to the fact that the self-knowledge that corresponds to God is not extended, due to the self-referentiality that it involves, to human beings. Therefore, I will defend the thesis that, at least within the context of Aristotle’s philosophy, it is possible to find another model of self-knowledge that better fits the heteroreferential nature of human cognition. To that end, I will begin with some introductory considerations on the forms of reflexivity involved in each case. I will then analyze the central passages of Metaphysics and De anima in which Aristotle characterizes the kind of intellection that is proper to the being that is the object of theology as one based on the relation of identity, and then contrast them with various statements in his Ethics where otherness is highlighted as the distinctive note of human cognitive acts. From this, I will conclude by distinguishing two senses in which self-knowledge can be understood in Aristotle: either as “intellective self-knowledge” or as “relational self-knowledge”.
Downloads
References
Aristóteles. (1956). De anima (Ross, W. D., Ed.). Oxford University Press.
Aristóteles. (2010). Acerca del alma. De anima (Boeri, M., Trad.). Ediciones Colihue.
Aristóteles. (1991). Ethica Eudemia (Mingay, J. M. & Walzer, R. R., Eds.). Oxford University Press.
Aristóteles. (1894). Ethica Nicomachea (Bywater, I., Ed.). Oxford University Press.
Aristóteles. (1985). Ética Nicomáquea. Ética Eudemia (Pallí, J., Trad.). Gredos.
Aristóteles. (1883). Magna Moralia (Susemihl, F., Ed.). B. G. Teubner.
Aristóteles. (1957). Metaphysica (Jaeger, W., Ed.). Oxford University Press.
Aristóteles. (1994). Metafísica (Calvo, T., Ed.). Gredos.
Brentano, F. (1874). Psychologie vom empirischen Standpunkt. Dritter Band. Felix Meiner Verlag.
Burnyeat, B. (1982). What Descartes Saw and Berkeley Missed. The Philosophical Review, 91(1), 3-40. https://doi.org/10.2307/2184667.
Hegel. (1999). Enciclopedia de las Ciencias Filosóficas (Valls, R., Trad.). Alianza Editorial.
Kosman, L. A. (1975). Perceiving that We Perceive: On the Soul III, 2. The Philosophical Review, 84 (4), 499-519. https://doi.org/10.2307/2183851.
Oehler, K. (1962). Die Lehre vom Noetischen und Dianoetischen Denken bei Platon und Aristoteles. C. H. Beck.
Oehler, K. (1974). Aristotle on Self-Knowledge. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 118(6), 493-506. https://www.jstor.org/stable/986399.
Platón. (2019). Cármides (Boeri, M., Trad.). Ediciones Colihue.
Platón. (1992). Diálogos VII. Dudosos, Apócrifos, Cartas (Zaragoza, J. & Gómez, P., Trad.). Gredos.
Platón. (1900). Platonis Opera. Tomus I. Tetralogias I-II Continens (Burnet, J., Ed.). Oxford University Press.
Platón. (1901). Platonis Opera. Tomus II. Tetralogias III-IV Continens (Burnet, J., Ed.). Oxford University Press.
Platón. (2006). Teeteto (Boeri, M., Trad.). Losada.
Ross, A. (2023). El autoconocimiento en Aristóteles: una propuesta de reconstrucción. En P. Fernández, L. Placencia y G. Rossi, (Eds.), Praxis e interpretación. Un homenaje a Alejandro Vigo (pp. 121-138). Georg Olms Verlag. https://doi.org/10.5771/9783487424446-121.
Shields, C. (2017). Aristotle’s Requisite of Self-Knowledge. En U. Renz (Ed.), Self-Knowledge (pp. 44-60). A History. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190226411.003.0004.
Tugendhat, E. (1993). Autoconciencia y autodeterminación. Una interpretación lingüísticoanalítica. Fondo de Cultura Económica.
Vigo, A. (1999). Intelecto, pensamiento y conocimiento de sí. La estructura de la autoconciencia en Plotino (V 3). Acta Philosophica, 8(1), 45-68. https://doi.org/10.17421/1121_2179_1999_08_01_Vigo.
Wieland, W. (1999). Platon und die Formen des Wissens. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Luciano Garófalo
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
