Practical Wisdom

Aristotle on the precision of our inquiries


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“Our inquiry would be adequately made if it should attain the clarity that accords with the subject matter. For one should not seek out precision in all arguments alike, just as one should not do so in the products of craftsmanship either.

The noble things and the just things, which the political art examines, admit of much dispute and variability, such that they are held to exist by custom alone and not by nature.

And even the good things admit of some such variability on account of the harm that befalls many people as a result of them: it has happened that some have been destroyed on account of their wealth, others on account of their courage. …

It belongs to an educated person to seek out precision in each genus to the extent that the nature of the matter allows: to accept persuasive speech from a skilled mathematician appears comparable to demanding demonstrations from a skilled rhetorician.”

(Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, I.3)

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Practical WisdomBy Massimo Pigliucci