Stagirites' definition of wisdom

Abstract

© 2017 University of Novi Sad. All Rights Reserved. The author begins his examination of Aristotle's definition, but also of the origin and purpose of wisdom with the sentence that opens the Metaphysics ("All men by nature desire to know") which is the key to understanding this entire manuscript, and which simultaneously reveals the motive of the entire creative work of the philosopher of Stagira. According to Aristotle, this self-evident human longing for cognition, due to its natural reasoning, is independent of any pragmatic and utilitarian intentions. The article then analyzes the different types of knowledge which the Stagirites graded from the lowest one - sensation, then memory, appearance, experience, art and wisdom, which is at the top of the scale of knowledge. The notion of wisdom, according to these considerations, is based primarily on the knowledge of causes. It could be said that the higher and the more general causes the one knows, the wiser he shall be considered. This highest kind of knowledge, therefore, should demonstrate what things are and why they are. In his research, primarily of Metaphysics Book A, the author finds that wisdom, in addition to being the science about the universal, it represents the hardest and most exact science, which is more capable of teaching and which is most authoritative of the sciences. Finally, only "wisdom", "metaphysics", "science of first principles" fully corresponds to the concept of science that seeks the truth and whose purpose is knowledge for the sake of knowledge.