Entry 0598: What is a Dianoetic Habit?
The phrase dianoetic habit has been used to describe the
habits of the speculative intellect, intellectus, sapientia and scientia (in
Greek nous, sophia and episteme).
The Greek doxa
is simply opinion in the order of knowledge.
The habits of the practical intellect are ars and prudentia (in Greek, techne
and phronesis).
In a more restricted way the adjective dianoetic is the opposite of noetic.
In these contexts noetic refers to the human intellect's non-discursive, immediate grasping of
elements of knowledge, as is for example the activity of the habit intellectus principiorum. Dianoetic, on
the other hand, refers to the acquisition of elements of knowledge through the
process of reasoning (ratiocinatio).
The Latin recta ratio
factibilium refers to the Greek poiesis
from poiein (facere, to make).
The Latin recta ratio
agibilium refers to the Greek praxis
from prattein (agere, to do).