Of Art and Wisdom

Plato's Understanding of Techne

By David Roochnik

1996

First Published

3.40

Average Rating

312

Number of Pages

9H28M

Audio Length

A comprehensive discussion of Plato's treatment of techne (technical knowledge), which shows that the final goal of Platonic philosophy is nontechnical wisdom.The Greek word techne, typically translated as "art," but also as "craft," "skill," "expertise," "technical knowledge," and even "science," has been decisive in shaping our "technological" culture. Here David Roochnik comprehensively analyzes Plato's treatment of this crucial word. Roochnik maintains that Plato's understanding of both the goodness of techne, as well as its severe limitations and consequent need to be supplemented by "nontechnical" wisdom, can speak directly to our own concerns about the troubling impact technology has had on contemporary life.For most commentators, techne functions as a positive, theoretical model through which Plato attempts to articulate the nature of moral knowledge. Scholars such as Terence Irwin and Martha Nussbaum argue that Plato's version of moral knowledge is structurally similar to techne. In arguing thus, they attribute to Plato what Nietzsche called "theoretical optimism," the view that technical knowledge can become an efficient panacea for the dilemmas and painful contingencies of human life. Conventional wisdom has it, in short, that for Plato technical, moral knowledge can solve life's problems.By systematically analyzing Socrates' analogical arguments, Roochnik shows the weakness of the conventional view. The basic pattern of these arguments is this: if moral knowledge is analogous to techne, then insurmountable difficulties arise, and moral knowledge becomes impossible. Since moral knowledge is not impossible, it cannot be analogous to techne. In other words, the purpose of Socrates' analogical arguments is to reveal the limitations of techne as a model for the wisdom Socrates so ardently seeks. For all the reasons Plato is so careful to present in his dialogues, wisdom cannot be rendered technical; it cannot become techne. Thus, Roochnik concludes, Plato wrote dialogues instead of technical treatises, as they are the appropriate vehicle for his expression of nontechnical wisdom.David Roochnik is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Boston University. He is the author of The Tragedy of Reason: Toward a Platonic Conception of Logos (Routledge, 1991).

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Author

David Roochnik

Author · 7 books

David Roochnik is Professor of Philosophy and Maria Stata Professor of Classical Greek Sudies at Boston University. Prior to that he was Associate Professor of Philosophy and Classical Studies at the Iowa State University, and during the 1992/93 year Visiting Associate Professor at Williams College. He joined Boston University in the fall of 1995. In 1996, he was awarded the Excellence in Teaching Award by the Undergraduate Philosophy Club. In 1997, Dr. Roochnik was awarded both the Gitner Award for Distinguished Teaching at the College of Arts and Sciences and the Outstanding Teaching Award by the Honors Program in the College of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Roochnik is also winner of Boston University’s 1999 Metcalf Award for Excellence in Teaching. Recipients of this award are chosen after a university-wide competition and assessment. Most recently Dr. Roochnik won the John Donovan Best Paper Award, New England Political Science Association. May, 2004 (for a paper given in May, 2003: “Plato’s Defense Of Diversity.”) Dr. Roochnik is the author of thirty-five articles on Greek philosophy, Greek literature, rhetoric ancient and modern, post-modernism, and the nature of philosophy. He is the recipient of grants and fellowships from the NEH and the Earhart Foundation. He was also invited to give the inaugeral lecture of the Ancient Philosophy Society in Eugene, Oregon, October 7, 1999.