15. Being and Logos?

Humans are able to think and speak about the world around them. What are the limits of this relationship between our reason (logos) and the things that reason encounters (being)? Nicholas Denyer, in his book Language, Thought, and Falsehood in Ancient Greek Philosophy (Routledge: 1991), writes the following passage with reference to Aristotle:

“Some reason that since human understanding does have a structure of its own, we cannot think of everything, just as it is in itself. Aristotle reasons instead that since we can think of everything, just as it is in itself, human understanding is entirely without structure or content, save that which is imparted to it by the world.” (206)

Could it be the case that humans can potentially think everything? Or is it the case, perhaps, that we can’t think of anything as it really is? Is it a little of both? How much of both? How could we know? And what must we think about the human mind and the world if we can know something? Everything?

 

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