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On the Manifold Meaning of Truth in Aristotle

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The Multidimensionality of Hermeneutic Phenomenology

Part of the book series: Contributions to Phenomenology ((CTPH,volume 70))

Abstract

When Aristotle treats true and false statements in his logical treatises, he shows that truth and falsity are the pre-supposed, non-discursive grounding for statements themselves. His ethical treatises show that intellectual virtues are constituted by truth. The Metaphysics shows that truth in thinking is sustained by the truth of being. All these diverse studies can be connected to one another by way of the Greek term for truth, aletheia, as Heidegger has treated it.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Heidegger (1983, 2000). See especially Chapter IV, Sect. 3.

  2. 2.

    Joseph J. Kockelmans (1986), 145–160.

  3. 3.

    Kockelmans (1984).

  4. 4.

    Heidegger (2005a). Not to be confused with other lecture courses on Aristotle, in GA 61, 18 and 22, that will not concern us here.

  5. 5.

    Heidegger, Phänomenologische Interpretationen zu Aristotle (Anzeige der hermeneutischen Situation), now published as an Appendix to GA 62, pp. 343–399.

  6. 6.

    Heidegger (1992, 1997).

  7. 7.

    Paolo Crivelli (2004).

  8. 8.

    Presidential Address delivered before the Eighty-Third Annual Eastern Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association in Boston, Massachusetts, December 29, 1986.

  9. 9.

    Terence Irwin, Hackett Books. Some other versions: “…the soul possesses truth…” (W. D. Ross, Oxford translation); “…the soul expresses truth…” (Martin Ostwald, Library of Liberal Arts).

  10. 10.

    Op. cit, p. 51, note 24.

  11. 11.

    E.g., Theodore Kisiel (1993), 250, writes “the soul trues,” but that violates English too much.

  12. 12.

    Paul Friedländer (1954, 1958), 222–3.

  13. 13.

    Ernst Heitsch (1962), 24–33.

  14. 14.

    For instance, Heribert Boeder (1959), 82–112.

  15. 15.

    Friedländer (1964). Not yet translated.

  16. 16.

    Heidegger (1976, in English 2010). Joseph Kockelmans takes his start from this lecture course in his book On the Truth of Being; he also treats it in the paper we mentioned that he published in 1986.

  17. 17.

    Heidegger’s researches on logic began with his doctoral dissertation of 1913 on the psychologistic current of the nineteenth century, continued with his habilitation thesis of 1916 on Medieval logic, with the closest engagement with Neo-Kantian and phenomenological logics and epistemologies coming in the years before and during his teaching activity in Freiburg and Marburg. In the years after 1926, we have many treatments in logic in GA 24, GA 26, GA 38 and GA 45. An excellent orientation can be found in Mohanty 1988.

  18. 18.

    Apophantikos ou pas, all’ en hō to alētheuein ē pseudesthai hyparchei.

  19. 19.

    “Der Satz ist definiert mit Rücksicht auf Wahrheit und nicht umgekehrt,Wahrheit kommt vom Satz her.”

  20. 20.

    “Aufweisend sehen lassen (Aussage) ist nur das Reden, darin das Entdecken oder Verdecken vorkommt” 132. Several variants of this point appear 133–5.

  21. 21.

    Heidegger (1982, 2002).

  22. 22.

    This is also the main source for the Kockelmans essay, mentioned above, of 1986.

  23. 23.

    Heidegger himself refers to Jaeger (1948), treats Theta 10 on pp. 204–5, though in earlier works he treated it even more critically; Ross (1924), 2 volumes, commentary ad loc; and a number of older German scholars. I’ll add a remark later on about Crivelli.

  24. 24.

    Met.Kappa, 1059b 35; α, 993 b 28 f.; de An. 430a 26, b 6.

  25. 25.

    Op. cit., II, pp. 276–7.

  26. 26.

    See Joseph Owens (1963), Chapter 3.

  27. 27.

    Brentano (1862, 1975).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Toronto, 350 St. David St. S, Fergus, ON, N1M 2L8, Canada

    Graeme Nicholson

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  1. Fordham University, New York, New York, USA

    Babette Babich

  2. St. Kliment Ohridski University, Sofia, Bulgaria

    Dimitri Ginev

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Nicholson, G. (2014). On the Manifold Meaning of Truth in Aristotle. In: Babich, B., Ginev, D. (eds) The Multidimensionality of Hermeneutic Phenomenology. Contributions to Phenomenology, vol 70. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01707-5_13

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