Art and Craft

I. The Meaning of Craft

  • Definition of Craft (Obsolete Sense of 'Art'):

    • In ancient Latin, ars and in Greek, τέχνη, meant the power to produce a preconceived result by means of consciously controlled and directed action.
    • It is crucial to differentiate this notion of craft from art proper to establish a sound aesthetic.

  • Chief Characteristics of Craft:

    • 1. Distinction between Means and End:
      • Means and end are clearly conceived as distinct but related.
      • Means refers specifically to the actions involved (e.g., manipulating tools, tending machines, burning fuel), not the objects themselves.
      • These actions are passed through or traversed to reach the end and are left behind once the end is attained.
      • Distinction from 'Part': A part is indispensable to a whole and exists with the whole, remaining even when the whole exists. Means, however, cease to exist once the end is reached.
      • Distinction from 'Material': To be discussed in point (4).
    • 2. Distinction between Planning and Execution:
      • The desired outcome is preconceived or thought out before its creation.
      • The craftsman has precise foreknowledge of what they intend to make (e.g., specific dimensions for a table).
      • Lack of such precise foreknowledge means the result is an accident, not a craft.
    • 3. Relation of Means and End in Planning vs. Execution:
      • In Planning: The end is prior to the means; the end is conceived first, then the means to achieve it.
      • In Execution: The means come first, and the end is achieved through their application.
    • 4. Distinction between Raw Material and Finished Product/Artifact:
      • Craft always operates upon something (raw material) and aims to transform it into something different (finished product).
      • The raw material exists ready-made before the crafting process begins.
    • 5. Distinction between Form and Matter:
      • Matter is the identical aspect present in both the raw material and the finished product.
      • Form is the aspect that differs, encompassing what the craft's exercise changes.
      • Raw material is not formless; it simply has not yet acquired the specific form intended by the craftsman.
    • 6. Hierarchical Relation between Various Crafts:
      • Crafts exist in a hierarchy, where one supplies what another needs.
      • Three kinds of hierarchy:
        • (a) Hierarchy of Materials: The finished product of one craft serves as the raw material for another (e.g., silviculturist $\to$ felling-men (logs) $\to$ saw-mill (planks) $\to$ joiner).
        • (b) Hierarchy of Means (Tools): One craft provides tools for another (e.g., timber-merchant (pit-props) $\to$ miner $\to$ blacksmith (horseshoes) $\to$ farmer).
        • (c) Hierarchy of Parts: A complex operation is divided among multiple trades, each contributing a part to a greater whole (e.g., motor-car manufacture, where different firms make engines, gears, chassis, etc., and a final assembly brings them together, though final assembly itself is not strictly manufacture).
      • Every craft exhibits this hierarchical character, either externally (related to other crafts) or internally (consisting of hierarchically related operations).

  • Conclusion on Craft: While these features might not be exhaustive or exclusively unique to craft, their general absence from an activity suggests it is not a craft, or the term is used inaccurately.

II. The Technical Theory of Art

  • Origin and Influence:
    • The idea of craft was extensively developed by Greek philosophers, particularly the Socratic school up to Aristotle.
    • This philosophy of craft was a major achievement, providing a foundational understanding.
  • Application to Art:
    • Initially, Greek philosophers sometimes resisted applying craft theory to non-craft domains (e.g., Plato's Republic arguing justice is not a craft; Aristotle's Metaphysics rejecting the idea of God as a craftsman of the world).
    • However, when addressing aesthetic problems, both Plato and Aristotle yielded to the temptation.
    • They considered poetry, the art they discussed in detail, as a type of craft: ποιητική τέχνη (poet-craft).
  • Nature of Poet-Craft (according to Plato and Aristotle):
    • Crafts can aim to produce:
      • Specific types of artifacts (e.g., cobbling, carpentering).
      • Non-human organisms (e.g., agriculture, stock-breeding).
      • Specific states of mind in human beings (e.g., medicine, education, warfare).
    • Ultimately, all these kinds of craft reduce to one: bringing human beings into certain desired conditions or states of mind.
    • Poet-craft, therefore, likewise aims to bring about certain states of mind in consumers, conceived in advance as desirable.
    • The poet, like any craftsman, must know what effect they aim at and learn how to produce it through experience.
    • Analogous crafts of painting, sculpture, etc., were envisioned, though for Plato, sculpture was a part of poetry.
  • Modern Relevance of the Technical Theory:
    • This ancient Greek thought has left permanent traces on contemporary understanding of art.
    • Modern thinking, especially within economics and psychology, reinforces the subsumption of art under craft.
    • Economist's View: Art is a specialized group of industries; the artist is a producer, the audience consumers who derive benefits (definable as desired states of mind).
    • Psychologist's View: The audience consists of persons reacting in certain ways to stimuli provided by the artist who must know desired reactions and provide appropriate stimuli.
    • This theory is prevalent in how most people today think of art and is not merely an antiquarian interest.
  • Critique of the Technical Theory:
    • The theory is simply a vulgar error.
    • To evaluate if art is a craft, one must apply the defining characteristics of craft without forcing a fit (no chopping of toes or squeezing of heels).
    • Better to have no theory of art at all than a flawed one.

III. Break-down of the Technical Theory

  • Examination of Craft Characteristics in Art Proper:
    • 1. Means and End:
      • Technical Theory Claim: A poem is a means to a state of mind in the audience, and the poem itself is an end with means (e.g., poet's actions).
      • Critique:
        • There are no clear means akin to a blacksmith's forge, anvil, or hammer in poetic composition. The 'poetic labour of mind' is not a means in the craft sense. A poet cannot make a poem by 'sheer labour' alone.
        • If a poem's desired effect on the audience is not achieved, does that make it a bad poem? For a craft, the answer would be an unequivocal yes. For art, it is a difficult question, indicating art's non-craft nature.
    • 2. Planning and Execution:
      • Technical Theory Claim: Like craft, art involves a clear plan followed by execution.
      • Critique:
        • While some art (which is also craft, e.g., commissioned architecture) involves planning, pure art can be unplanned.
        • A poet composing spontaneously while walking, or a sculptor playfully forming clay, creates art without a definite plan.
        • The absence of a plan is a negative characteristic of art, not a positive