Aristotle on Knowledge of Nature and Modern Skepticism

By (author) Nathan R. Colaner

Publication date:

05 November 2014

Length of book:

210 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9780739177129

Confronting the scientific revolution’s dismissal of Aristotle’s physics and epistemology, Nathan R. Colaner revives this foundational philosopher’s work to expose within it the underpinnings of modern philosophers’ most common intuitions about knowledge. After Aristotle’s picture of reality had been judged obsolete by the physics of the scientific revolution, modern Western epistemologists fumbled along with doctrines that had little to do with everyday life. These included Descartes’ notion of the evil genius, Hume’s claim that we can’t know anything that we are not presently observing, and Kant’s rescue of knowledge in the context of idealism. In Aristotle on Knowledge of Nature and Modern Skepticism, Colaner articulates a notion of knowledge that is characteristically Aristotelian without being dependent on his metaphysics. Simultaneously, Colaner places Aristotle in dialogue with modern thinkers to create a bridge between classical and modern philosophy and reinstate Aristotle’s prominence in the discipline of epistemology.

Part One: Aristotle on Knowledge of Nature
1. What Epistēmē is Not
2. The Principles of Epistēmē
3. Pursuing the Principles: Epagōgē
4. Grasping the Principles: Nous
5. Using the Principles: Demonstration and Contemplation

Part Two: Aristotle on Modern Skepticism
6. Hume and Kant on the Problem of Objective Validity
7. Aristotle and Kant on Spontaneity
8. Gettier and the Problem of Justification
9. Descartes and the Problem of External World Skepticism
10. Kant and the Problem of Intellectual Intuition
11. Dialectic and Metaphysical Skepticism

Noting that “fresh ideas may be found in supposedly stale places,” Colaner argues that Aristotle’s epistemology, stripped from its historically situated cosmological frame, might be of more than historical significance, and thus deserves serious rethinking. He proceeds to defend that thesis throughout the book with remarkable dexterity and success.