INTRODUCTORY PART


The Securing of ἀλήθεια as the Ground of
Plato's Research into Being
Interpretations of Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics Book VI and
Book X, Chapters 6-8; Metaphysics Book I, Chapters 1-2



Chapter One


Preparatory Survey of the Modes of ἀληθεύειν (ἐπιστήμη,
τέχνη, φρόνησις, σοφία, νοῦς) (Nic. Eth. VI, 2--6)



§4. The meaning of ἀληθεύειν in Aristotle for
Plato's research into Being.


a) The five modes of ἀληθεύειν (Nic. Eth. VI, 3). Ἀληθεύειν
as ground of research into Being. Ἀλήθεια as the
determination of the Being of Dasein (ἀληθεύει ἡ ψυχή).


Aristotle introduces the actual investigation (VI, 3, 1149b15ff.) with a programmatic enumeration of the modes of ἀληθεύειν: ἔστω δὴ οἷς ἀληθεύει ἡ ψυχὴ τῷ καταφάναι ἢ ἀποφάναι, πέντε τὸν ἀριθμόν· ταῦτα δ᾽ ἐστὶν τέχνη ἐπιστήμη φρόνησις σοφία νοῦς· ὑπολήψει γὰρ καὶ δόξῃ ἐνδέχεται διαψεύδεσθαι. "Hence there are five ways human Dasein discloses beings in affirmation and denial. And these are: know-how (in taking care, manipulating, producing), science, circumspection (insight), understanding, and perceptual discernment." As an appendix, Aristotle adds ὑπόληψις, to deem, to take something as something, and δόξα, view, opinion. These two modes of ἀληθεύειν characterize human Dasein in its ἐνδέχεται: ἐνδέχεται διαψεύδεσθαι; insofar as human Dasein moves in them, "it can be deceived." Δόξα is not false without further ado; it can be false, it can distort beings, it can thrust itself ahead of them. Now all these diverse modes of ἀληθεύειν stand connected to λόγος; all, with the exception of νοῦς, are here μετὰ λόγου; there is no circumspection, no understanding, which would not be a speaking. Τέχνη is know-how in taking care, manipulating, and producing, which can develop in different degrees, as for example with the shoemaker and the tailor; it is not the manipulating and producing itself but is a mode of know ledge, precisely the know-how which guides the ποίησις.


Martin Heidegger (GA 19) Plato's Sophist