24. Doubting Well and Discovery in Wisdom

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

• Doubting Well as a Prerequisite for Discovery: Aristotle establishes that those wishing to discover truth must first examine and articulate the difficulties (ἀποροῦντες) inherent in a question
• The Metaphor of Tying and Untying Knots: Contradictions bind the mind like tied feet; discovery is the untying of these knots
• Disputed Questions (Quaestiones Disputatae): The medieval scholastic method of examining opposing authoritative positions to advance understanding
• The Role of Contradiction Across Disciplines: Physicists, theologians, and philosophers all recognize that fundamental progress occurs when genuine contradictions are identified and resolved
• The Importance of Asking the Right Question: Formulating the correct question often requires more effort than answering it; the right question orients the mind toward truth

Key Arguments #

Aristotle’s Four Reasons for Examining Difficulties Beforehand #

1. Discovery as Untying: The discovery afterward is an untying of the difficulty seen before. Without seeing the contradiction clearly, one cannot resolve it. As Aristotle states: “For the discovery afterwards is an untying of the difficulty seen before.”

2. Direction and Progress: Seeing the difficulty tells one where to go. Those investigating without first considering difficulties are like those who do not know where they ought to go. The contradiction provides direction for inquiry.

3. Recognition of Arrival: When the knot is untied, one knows one has arrived at what was previously unknown. The goal becomes clear to the one who has brought out the difficulties beforehand, enabling verification of discovery.

4. Better Judgment: One who has heard all the reasons of those disagreeing is better prepared to judge, just as a jury hearing both sides renders better judgment than one hearing only one side.

The Nature of Bene Dubitare (Doubting Well) #

• Definition: Thomas Aquinas explains it as “to attain well to those things which are truly doubtful”—having genuine, well-founded reasons for thinking something is true AND well-founded reasons for thinking it is false
• Act of Reason, Not Will: Unlike Cartesian doubt (which is an act of will), doubting well is an act of reason, seeing reasons on both sides of a question
• Example from Anaxagoras Fragment: The mind is self-ruling (logic demonstrates this through the science of self-direction). Yet the ruler must be separated from the ruled. But the mind is not separated from itself. This is true doubt—genuine reasons on both sides, which generates the right question
• Resolution Through Distinction: The mind directs itself in what it does not know by means of what it does know. One must separate what is known from what is unknown, and what is more known from what is less known to use knowledge of the latter to gain knowledge of the former

Important Definitions #

• Bene Dubitare: To articulate with equal force the reasons for and against a position; genuine intellectual difficulty arising from contradictory but well-supported arguments
• Ἀπορίαι (Aporiai): Difficulties; the problems or contradictions that bind the mind and require resolution
• Λύσις (Lysis): Untying; the resolution of the difficulty through discovery
• Quaestiones Disputatae: Medieval scholastic method wherein opposing positions are formally examined before reaching resolution, exemplified in Thomas Aquinas’s theological works

Examples & Illustrations #

From Literature and Language Arts #

• Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night: Viola disguises herself as a man; the Duke loves another woman; that woman loves Viola (believing her a man). Viola says: “O time, thou must untangle this, not I. It is too hard a knot for me to untie.” The knot’s untying requires time and external events.
• Henry Fielding’s Joseph Andrews: Fielding prefaces the novel explaining he attempts a form of fiction to which readers may not be accustomed, warning that readers may expect a pleasure other than that intended
• C.S. Lewis’s The Allegory of Love: Lewis wrote to educate readers how to approach medieval allegorical fiction, a form with which modern readers are unfamiliar
• C.S. Lewis’s A Preface to Paradise Lost: Lewis argues one cannot read Paradise Lost the way one reads lyric poetry and retain proper understanding

From Anaxagoras Fragment #

• The problem of how mind (νοῦς) can be self-ruling when the ruler must be separated from the ruled, yet the mind is not separated from itself. The resolution: mind rules itself in the unknown by means of the known; in the less known by means of the more known. This requires separating the known from the unknown.

From Socratic Method #

• Plato’s Meno: Socrates shows the slave boy that doubling the side of a square does not double its area, creating a contradiction that frees the boy from false certainty

From Physics #

• Werner Heisenberg’s Observation: “To ask the right question is often to go more than halfway to the solution.” Heisenberg emphasizes that progress in physics occurs when scientists learn to ask the right questions about apparent contradictions
• Albert Einstein’s Evolution of Physics: Einstein notes that every essential idea in science was born from difficulty—from a contradiction that demanded resolution
• Niels Bohr on Rutherford’s Model: Bohr states that Rutherford’s atom model made clear that atomic stability could not be accounted for by classical laws, “pointed to the quantum as the only possible escape from the acute dilemma”

Questions Addressed #

• Why must those seeking wisdom examine difficulties beforehand? Without articulating the contradiction clearly, one cannot proceed toward resolution; the knot must be seen before it can be untied
• What distinguishes genuine doubt from mere skeptical doubt? Genuine doubt (bene dubitare) involves having well-grounded reasons on both sides of a question; it is an act of reason, not will
• How does identifying contradictions advance knowledge? Contradictions bind the mind in a specific direction and force investigation toward their resolution; recognition of arrival occurs when the contradiction is resolved
• Why is the disputatio method pedagogically valuable? It systematically examines both positions before judgment, preparing the mind to judge truth more accurately than examining only one side

Structural Significance #

This lecture serves as the methodological introduction to Book III of Aristotle’s Metaphysics. Books III-XIV follow a plot structure: Book III presents the “knots” (disputed questions about causes, substance, unity, etc.); Books IV-XIV “untie” these knots through systematic resolution. This first reading establishes why such examination is necessary and how discovery proceeds from the identification of genuine contradictions.