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Christiana Olfert, Tufts University

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Friday, February 05, 2016
3:30 pm - 5:30 pm

"Practical Knowledge in the Charmides and the Statesman"

Host: Philosophy Department
When we reason about what to do, how do we balance practical values with epistemic ones? Is the normative structure of practical reasoning such that we value truth and knowledge for the sake of acting and living well? Or do we value acting and living well because they enable us to gain knowledge? In the Charmides and the Statesman, Plato says that when we reason knowledgeably about what to do, practical and epistemic values are inseparable and equally fundamental: the value of acting and living well cannot be defined independently of the value of truth and knowledge, and neither of these values is prioritized over the other. I argue that this Platonic idea about the normative structure of practical knowledge is both an attractive philosophical idea in its own right, and an idea with an important legacy in Aristotle's theory of practical reasoning.

Contact: Lisa Olds