Aristotle On The Nature Of Truth

This page intentionally left blank Aristotle on the Nature of Truth This book reconsiders the traditional correspondence theory of truth, which takes truth to be a matter of correctly representing objects. Drawing Heideggerian phenomenology into dialogue with American pragmatic naturalism, Christopher P. Long undertakes a rigorous reading of Aristotle that articulates the meaning of truth as a cooperative activity between human-beings and the natural world that is rooted in our endeavors to do justice to the nature of things. By following a path of Aristotle’s thinking that leads from our rudimentary encounters with things in perceiving through human communication to thinking, this book traces an itinerary that uncovers the nature of truth as ecological justice, and it finds the nature of justice in our attempts to articulate the truth of things. Christopher P. Long is Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies in the College of the Liberal Arts and Associate Professor of Philosophy at the Pennsylvania State University. He is the author of The Ethics of Ontology: Rethinking an Aristotelian Legacy (2004) and has published numerous articles in journals, including the Review of Metaphysics, Ancient Philosophy, Southern Journal of Philosophy, Polis, Epoché, Continental Philosophy Review, and Telos. Aristotle on the Nature of Truth CHRISTOPHER P. LONG The Pennsylvania State University cambridge university press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi, Dubai, Tokyo, Mexico City Cambridge University Press 32 Avenue of the Americas, New York, ny 10013-2473, usa www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521191210 © Christopher P. Long 2011 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2011 Printed in the United States of America A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication data Long, Christopher P. (Christopher Philip), 1969– Aristotle on the nature of truth / Christopher Long. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-0-521-19121-0 (hardback) 1. Aristotle. 2. Truth. I. Title b491.t78l66 2010 121.092–dc22 2010030598 isbn 978-0-521-19121-0 Hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of urls for external or third-party Internet Web sites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. For Chloe, Hannah, and Valerie … σοφίη ἀληθέα λέγειν καὶ ποιεῖν κατὰ φύσιν ἐπαίνοντας. … wisdom is for the ones listening to speak truth and act according to nature. Heraclitus, in Hermann Diels, Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker τοῖς μὲν οὖν τότε, ἅτε οὐκ οὖσι σοφοῖς ὥσπερ ὑμεῖς οἱ νέοι, ἀπέχρη δρυὸς καὶ πέρας ἀκούειν ὑπ᾽ εὐηθε