Abstract

LOPEZ GOMEZ, Catalina. The animal intelligence according Aristotle. discus.filos [online]. 2009, vol.10, n.15, pp.69-81. ISSN 0124-6127.

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 : Animals; Aristotle; intelligence; phronesis; vital acts.

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