Aletheia

''Aletheia'' or Alethia (; grc, ἀλήθεια) is truth or disclosure in philosophy. Originating in Ancient Greek philosophy, the term was later used in the works of 20th-century philosopher Martin Heidegger. Although often translated as "truth", Heidegger argued that it is distinct from common conceptions of truth.

Antiquity

is variously translated as "unconcealedness", "disclosure", "revealing", or "unclosedness". The literal meaning of the word is "the state of not being hidden; the state of being evident." It also means factuality or reality. It is the antonym of , which literally means "oblivion", "forgetfulness", or "concealment" according to Pindar's First Olympian Ode.

In Greek mythology, was personified as a Greek goddess, Aletheia. In some accounts she was a daughter of Zeus, while Aesop's Fables state she was crafted by Prometheus. In she was equated with Veritas, the Roman goddess of truth.

Heidegger and ''aletheia''

In the early to mid 20th-century, Martin Heidegger brought renewed attention to the concept of ''aletheia'', by relating it to the notion of disclosure, or the way in which things appear as entities in the world. While he initially referred to ''aletheia'' as "truth", specifically a form that is pre-Socratic in origin, Heidegger eventually corrected this interpretation, writing:

Heidegger gave an etymological analysis of ''aletheia'' and drew out an understanding of the term as 'unconcealedness'. Thus, ''aletheia'' is distinct from conceptions of truth understood as statements which accurately describe a state of affairs ( correspondence), or statements which fit properly into a system taken as a whole ( coherence). Instead, Heidegger focused on the elucidation of how an ontological "world" is disclosed, or opened up, in which things are made intelligible for human beings in the first place, as part of a holistically structured background of meaning.

Heidegger also wrote that , disclosure regarded as the opening of presence, is not yet truth. Is then less than truth? Or is it more because it first grants truth as and , because there can be no presence and presenting outside of the realm of the opening?"

Heidegger began his discourse on the reappropriation of ''aletheia'' in his magnum opus, ''Being and Time'' (1927), and expanded on the concept in his '' Introduction to Metaphysics''. For more on his understanding of ''aletheia'', see ''Poetry, Language, and Thought'', in particular the essay entitled "The Origin of the Work of Art", which describes the value of the work of art as a means to open a "clearing" for the appearance of things in the world, or to disclose their meaning for human beings.According to Heidegger, art "gives things their look, and human beings their outlook." From "The Origin of the Work of Art." Heidegger revised his views on ''aletheia'' as truth, after nearly forty years, in the essay "The End of Philosophy and the Task of Thinking," in ''On Time and Being''.

See also

References

Further reading

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External links

Aletheia and Other Terms for Truth in Ancient Greek


* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20150626101634/http://www.ontology.co/heidegger-aletheia.htm Martin Heidegger on Aletheia (Truth) as Unconcealment

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Concepts in metaphysics
Martin Heidegger
Truth
Parmenides
Personifications in Greek mythology