{"id":145,"date":"2021-03-25T10:24:51","date_gmt":"2021-03-25T10:24:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/chapter\/6-4-of-intuitive-reason-as-the-basis-of-demonstrative-science\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T23:22:53","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T23:22:53","slug":"6-insight","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/chapter\/6-insight\/","title":{"rendered":"Section 6: Insight or Understanding"},"content":{"raw":"<p id=\"Aristotle_0328_882\"><span class=\"milestone\"><\/span>Systematic knowledge takes up things that are universal and necessary, and the conclusions of demonstration. All systematic knowledge follows from principles or starting-points, since systematic knowledge involves reason. This being so, the principle from which what is systematically known follows cannot be an object of systematic knowledge, nor of skill or of prudence. For what can be systematically known can be demonstrated, and skill and prudence <sub>[35]<\/sub> deal with things that can be otherwise.<\/p>\r\n<sub>[1141a1]<\/sub> Nor are these principles the objects of philosophical wisdom, since it is a mark of the philosopher to have demonstrations about some things. Thus, if the dispositions by which we have truth and never falsehood about things that can't be otherwise--and even about things that can be otherwise--are systematic knowledge, prudence, philosophical wisdom, and insight or understanding (<em>nous<\/em>), <sub>[5]<\/sub> and if that disposition cannot be any of the first three (namely, systematic knowledge, prudence, philosophical wisdom), the remaining alternative is that it is insight or understanding that grasps the principles or starting-points.","rendered":"<p id=\"Aristotle_0328_882\"><span class=\"milestone\"><\/span>Systematic knowledge takes up things that are universal and necessary, and the conclusions of demonstration. All systematic knowledge follows from principles or starting-points, since systematic knowledge involves reason. This being so, the principle from which what is systematically known follows cannot be an object of systematic knowledge, nor of skill or of prudence. For what can be systematically known can be demonstrated, and skill and prudence <sub>[35]<\/sub> deal with things that can be otherwise.<\/p>\n<p><sub>[1141a1]<\/sub> Nor are these principles the objects of philosophical wisdom, since it is a mark of the philosopher to have demonstrations about some things. Thus, if the dispositions by which we have truth and never falsehood about things that can&#8217;t be otherwise&#8211;and even about things that can be otherwise&#8211;are systematic knowledge, prudence, philosophical wisdom, and insight or understanding (<em>nous<\/em>), <sub>[5]<\/sub> and if that disposition cannot be any of the first three (namely, systematic knowledge, prudence, philosophical wisdom), the remaining alternative is that it is insight or understanding that grasps the principles or starting-points.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":249,"menu_order":6,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[48],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-145","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","chapter-type-numberless"],"part":134,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/249"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1211,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/145\/revisions\/1211"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/134"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/145\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=145"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=145"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}