Graham PontThe Education of the Classical Architect fromPlato to VitruviusPlato divided science (episteme) into ‘science of action’ (praktike) and ‘science of mere knowing’ (gnostike). His argument is the first known attempt to distinguish what is now recognised as technology, as distinct from more purely rational science. Aristotle coined the compound term technologia and thereby established this new department of science within the general system of knowledge. Plato did not develop his novel characterisation of the architect any further, for the ancient Greeks did not consider architecture a fine or estimable art. The best available source of Greek architectural pedagogy is the Roman Vitruvius. Graham Pont discusses Vitruvius’s distinction between the ‘practical’ side of architecture (fabrica) and the ‘theoretical’ (ratiocinatio), and examines the mathematical preparation of ancient Greek and Roman architectsIn memory of Alpay ÖzduralIntroductionIn The Statesman (c.360 BC), Plato divided science (episteme) into ‘science of action’ (praktike) and ‘science of mere knowing’ (gnostike). His argument is the first known attempt to distinguish what is now recognised as technology, as distinct from more purely rational science, the dominant concern of his philosophical predecessors since the time of Heraclitus. Socrates, the son of a craftsman, had shown considerable interest in the practical arts (technai) and his disciple, Plato, had sought the logos of many a techne that had not previously been subjected to critical inquiry. But it was Plato’s pupil, Aristotle, who coined the compound term technologia and thereby established this new department of science within the general system of knowledge. The first art to be explicitly designated a technology was rhetoric [Aristotle, Rhetorica, c. 330 BC].Plato boldly envisaged pratike and gnostike as ‘constitutive of the unity of science as a whole’,1 thus anticipating Aristotle and the modern division of knowledge into ‘know how’ and ‘know that’. In trying to illustrate the difference, Plato identified kings and architects as exemplifying a distinctive kind of practical knowledge: knowledge which is ‘imperative’ (or executive) rather than purely ‘critical’ (philosophical, scientific or mathematical), as being concerned with ‘commanding’ rather than just ascertaining scientific facts or calculating mathematical truths.While reading this key passage, we must remember that the Greek expression architecton originally meant ‘master builder’ and that, despite their great achievements in design, planning, construction and decoration, the Greeks of Plato’s time lacked an appropriate terminology to distinguish between building in general and architecture in particular.Having drawn attention to the analogous executive roles of kings and architects, Plato drew a revolutionary conclusion:So we may fairly say he [the architect] comes under science which is concerned with knowing.Exactly.76 GRAHAM PONT– The Education of the Classical Architect from Plato to Vitruvius
Posted on: Tue, 15 Jul 2014 17:30:23 +0000
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