Basic Concepts of Ancient Philosophy [24-25]


20


Concept of σοφία: περί τινας ἀρχὰς καὶ αἰτίας ἐπιστήμη13 ["knowledge regarding principles and causes"]. σοφία: ἐπιστήμη pure and simple; ἐπιστάτης one who stands [steht] before and over some matter, who can stand at the head of it [vorsteht], who understands [versteht] it.

Path of the investigation: apprehending and knowing are comportments of humans, possessions of humans. Humans are beings among others. Lifeless—living. Living beings have determinate comportments; animals—humans. The task is then to interrogate the latter with regard to their comportments having something to do with knowing, understanding, apprehending, perceiving. Manifold of possibilities and of modes of disclosing in a certain gradation: σοφώτερος ["wiser"] (cf. 982a13f.), μᾶλλον σοφός ["more of a wise man"], ἔνδοξον ["esteemed"]) .

ἀληθεύειν:15 "to take out of concealment," "make unconcealed," "dis-cover" what was covered over. Living beings: human Dasein is that peculiar being which discloses other beings and itself, not simply as a supplementary faculty but, rather, φύσει ["by nature"]. By virtue of its very Being, the world and itself are already disclosed to it, though indeterminately, confusedly, uncertainly. World: what is closest, Being in the proper sense.

ἀληθεύειν: "to disclose," apprehend, understand: truth; knowledge as appropriated cognition: certainty. Modes of disclosing and understanding, pre-theoretically.

Gradation,16 development of the circumspection required for free motion:


αἴσθησις

μνήμη

ἐμπειρία

τέχνη

ἐπιστήμη

σοφία (φρόνησις)


αἴσθησις (cf. 980a22):17 "sense perception," ἴδια-κοινά-κατά συμβεβηκός ["proper-common-incidental"], because what is present is in every case enclosed in relations I?).

μνήμη (980a29),18 "retention," "memory," knowledge of what is not present or, rather, is again present; to have already apprehended.


13. Met. A 1, 982a2. Reading in Christ: περί τινας αἰτίας καὶ ἀρχὰς.

14. Met. A 1, 982a15f.: μᾶλλον...σοφίαν.

15. See Morchen transcription, no. 3, p. 170.

16. See Morchen transcription, no. 3, p. 170f.

17. See Morchen transcription, no. 3, p. 170f.

18. See Morchen transcription, no. 3, p. 170f.


Basic Concepts of Ancient Philosophy (GA 22) by Martin Heidegger