“Back to Aristotle”: the Dignity of Knowledge as a Problem of Epistemology

Abstract

Describing the intellectual significance of the works of Christian Wolff, Hegel remarked: “…Wolf die Welt des Bewußtseyns definirt, wie man es auch von Aristoteles sagen kann” [Hegel 1844, III, 427]. But Hegel clarifies at the same time: “Was ihn von Aristoteles unterscheidet, ist, daß er sich nur verständig dabei verhalten hat; während Aristoteles den Gegenstand spekulativ behan delte” [Ibid., 427‒428]. For the authors of this article, this clarification is fun damentally important: Aristotle managed to determine the consciousness that was the basis of European thought, and therefore, whenever European thought undergoes quite serious changes, there is an urgent need to return to Aristotle to determine new consciousness features. At least that is precisely how, in our opinion, the question should be posed in relation to the philosophical and methodological consciousness of modern science, which is one of the founda tions of European culture, because very controversial processes that capture it are becoming apparent today. Science is being transformed and, accordingly, the socio-cultural status of scientific knowledge is changing, the methodological meaning disappears from the concept of truth, the interpretation of knowledge as a good is disputed (originally lying in the foundations of science and having an existential-value rather than price meaning). The article substantiates the thesis that the concept “the dignity of knowledge” introduced by Aristotle opens up new prospects for a philosophical and methodological understanding of these processes.