Inteligencia animal en Aristóteles

Abstract

In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle presents phronesis as an intellectual virtue proper solely of human beings. However, in several passages of his biological writings, the author describes certain animals as intelligent. Starting form this difficulty, this text analyzes the meaning of the concept of phronesis in its animal scope. For this, it tracks, at first, the term in books II, III and VI of the Nicomachean Ethics. After that, it introduces and discusses a reading about this issue derived from the VIII book of History of Animals, in order to propose, finally, a new interpretation in which is plausible to speak of animal phronesis, not in the sense proposed on the Ethics as a whole, but as a virtue related with the vital acts of animals.

Keywords

vital acts

Animals

Aristotle

intelligence

phronesis

References

ARISTÓTELES. (2004). Nicomachean Etichs [E.N.]. Broadie, S. Rowe, Ch. (Trads). Oxford: Oxford, UP.

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LABARRIÈRE, J.L. (1990) “De la phronesis animale”. En: Logique et metaphysique chez Aristote. DEVEREUX, D. & PELLEGRIN, P. Paris: Centre national de la recherche scientifique. pp. 405-428.

LENNOX, J. (2001). Aristotle’s Philosophy of Biology. Studies in the Origins of Life Science. Cambridge: Cambridge, UP.