Miller (2013)

Miller, Fred D. (2013) Aristotle on Belief and Knowledge. In Anagnostopoulos and Miller (Eds.) (2013), 285-307.

Title	Aristotle on Belief and Knowledge
Resource Type	collection article
Author(s)	Fred D. Miller
Year	2013
Collection	Anagnostopoulos and Miller (Eds.) (2013)
Pages	285-307

Abstract

Aristotle is “the master of them that know” in Dante’s Divine Comedy (I.4.31). His Metaphysics begins with the stirring declaration that “All men by nature desire to know” (A.1 980a21). As Werner Jaeger ( 1962, p. 68) observes, “Knowledge has never been understood more purely, more earnestly, or more sublimely.” Aristotle agrees with Plato that knowledge is superior to belief: “He who has beliefs is, in comparison with the man who knows, not in a healthy state as far as the truth is concerned” (Met Γ.4 1008b27-31; cf. Plato Rep. VI 508d4-9). Aristotle’s remarks concerning belief are scattered throughout his works, none of which contains a systematic discussion of this topic. Not surprisingly, commentators have tended to give his account of belief short shrift.