Theoretical and Practical Epistemology in

Aristotle, Spinoza and Heidegger

by John Brandau

The Issue:
Naturalistic Reductionism and Ethics
The theoretical (scientific)
perspective tends to
reduce the human being
to a complex set of
causal mechanisms.

The practical (ethical)

perspective views the human
being as an agent acting in a
value-laden world and morally
responsible for her or his
decisions.

Virginia Held on the Natural and the

Normative
From the practical perspective we
perceive everyday ethical (normative)
realities.
The attempt to give a naturalistic account
of the practical perspective is necessarily
a distortion thereof.

Why?
The theoretical perspective can give only
descriptive, not evaluative, accounts.
The implications of determinism for value
and moral agency

The Question
Is there a legitimate practical epistemic domain
(domain of knowledge) which is inaccessible to
the theoretical perspective?
If not, is it possible to adequately replace
traditional, normative ethics with a naturalized
ethic?

Aristotle
His ethics of virtue is
often said to be
naturalistic.
Even so, he retains
moral agency and
transcendent values
in his ethics.
He holds an explicit
distinction between
theoretical and
practical knowledge.

Spinoza
His ethics is very similar to
Aristotles in content and in
being eudaimonistic.
He holds a reductionistic and
arguably naturalistic
understanding of the human
being.
He denies the freedom of the
will and transcendent values.
He tends to subsume the
practical under the theoretical.

Heidegger
He strongly opposes
the reductionistic
understanding of the
human being.
He maintains that the
theoretical
perspective is
ultimately grounded in
the practical
perspective.

Aristotle on Practical Reasoning

(phronesis)
Proceeds from the universal to the particular
(practical syllogism)
The role of ethos and hexis
The goal of practical reasoning as noble action
accompanied by an appropriate hexis
akrasia

The Practical Syllogism

Structure:
Major Premise
-Universal, normative judgment;
ex: It is always wrong to needlessly beat a child.

Minor Premise
-Understanding or judgment of a particular ethical

situation; ex: This child is being needlessly beaten.

Conclusion
-Appropriate action accompanied by an equally
appropriate emotional reaction; ex: Rescuing the child
with a sense of sympathy for him or her and disgust for
his or her assailant(s).

Practical Truth Contrasted with

Theoretical Truth
The grasping of practical truth requires a virtuous character (ethos)
or emotional state (hexis). Theoretical truth does not.
The universal judgments of practical truth are rules of thumb which
admit of exceptions in outstanding circumstances. Theoretical
judgments do not admit of exceptions.
In practical reasoning, the true apprehension of the particular ethical
situation (the minor premise) is primary. This apprehension makes
clear what major premise applies to the situation, and informs that
major premise (if for instance, an exception needs to be made).
Theoretical judgments, however, are always universal no
particulars enter into theoretical reasoning in Aristotle.

How are Theoretical and Practical

Truth Similar?
The common role of teleology
Perceived through common faculties

What is the Epistemic Status of

Practical Truth?
Does the requirement of virtue make
practical knowledge questionable?
Does the involvement of the particular in
practical truth compromise our practical
judgments?

Spinoza: Knowledge
Adequate vs. Inadequate ideas
3 Types of knowledge
-Imaginatio: disorganized accumulation of experience
-ratio: logical deductions made based on an
understanding of the nature of space (e.g. geometry) or
of the nature of thought (e.g. logic, psychology)
-sciencia intuitiva: the intuitive grasp of a particular thing
on the basis of ratio

Spinoza: Ethics
The polemic against traditional ethics:

-Against free will

-Against absolute normative terms
-Against teleology

The naturalistic replacement:

-The human being as conatus
-The redefinition of freedom, good, and bad
-A special brand of hedonism
-Resemblance to Aristotelian virtue ethics
-Akrasia and moral knowledge

A Comparison of Sciencia Intuitiva

and Phronesis
Both bridge the divide between the universal and the
particular.
Both involve a certain way of seeing or intuiting the
particular in a way that goes beyond mere sense
perception.
Both are intellectual virtues.
Both form the basis of the virtuous life.

Heidegger
Truth as aletheia (relation to akrasia)
The Being of beings
Zuhandenheit (handiness) vs.
Vorhandenheit (objective presence)

Being-in-the-World
In in the sense of innan-
The reference (Verweisung) of beings in the world
Relevance (Bewandtnis) as the Being of beings in the
world and the condition of encountering beings
Definition: the unthematic, circumspect absorption in the
references constitutive for the handiness of the totality of
useful things
The derivation of Vorhandenheit from Being-in-the-world

Dasein
Orientation towards the past: thrownness and
facticity
Orientation towards the future: understanding,
project and death
Anticipatory resoluteness as Daseins disclosure
of itself and its Situation
Anticipatory resoluteness as phronesis

Conclusions?