The Great Question of Practical Truth, and a Diminutive Answer

Abstract

This article aims to explicate Aristotle’s notion of practical truth. It is argued that, for Aristotle, practical truths are not actions, but propositions which contain gerundives. What makes a practical truth true, like any other truth, is correspondence to reality : a practical truth correctly states what is to be done if correct desire is to attain its end. This conception of practical truth is quite different from that developed by Elizabeth Anscombe, and it differs also from Kantian and expressivist accounts.