A
contribution to a human-scientific theory of action
 |
| Aristotle |
How can Aristotle help cast light over the concepts of theory and
practice, the difference between doing and acting, and the importance of
practical wisdom? My answer will be that teaching in our professions should be
based on theory-orientated empirical research.
The problem is not only what
we do, but also how we do it. Knowledge is not just the objective result
or product of scientific work, as we can read as articles, doctoral
dissertations or other scientific presentations, but also something we do and
we call this productive activity for scientific research. This is the
background for the titel “Creative meaning”. Research is a creative activity.
Teaching and training of our
professions tends to be insufficient when we stand face to face with making
difficult choices. The professional knowledge that is taught in our educational
institutions does not follow the quick and unforeseen changes that take place
in our society. We are often forced to find our own private and quiet ways out
of our difficulties with “homemade” explanations. That is why it is important
to try to make visible and articulate the experience which grows forth through
personal and long-lasting intercourse with everyday situations and problems.
This knowledge-in-action is a perspective which is concerned with solving
specific problems, but success depends on practical skill, judgment and
personal competence in handling unexpected situations.
Theory and practice
Theory and practice are two of our most common dichotomies. Theory and
practice are of those philosophical concepts that have become a part of our
everyday language and are used to legitimate, limit, excommunicate and most of
all try to explain something without really doing so. We often hear people say
that “we are not theoretical, we are practical”. But what is really “theory”
and what is “practice”?
Theory and practice are
amongst the oldest words in our western culture. They were created by the
Greeks. We associate spontaneously theory with thinking or knowledge, and
practice with doing. The first sits in our head and the other in our hands. The
question is if one can think without doing, or do something without thinking.
We are responsible for our actions, because we are conscious of them. Thinking
can therefore be considered a form for action.
Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics) presents a tool box
which I mean can help us give some kind of perspective to these two concepts.
Aristotle took words out of our everyday language and formed concepts that
would become instruments for philosophical and scientific understanding. His
influence on our way of thinking is enormous.
The tool box creates a
system of concepts which points to different forms of existence and knowledge.
Knowledge is a most problematic word, because we often mean an objective result
or a product. To know something is to have something in ones head, but also to
manage or to cope with something. To know something is first and foremost an
activity and about the competence this activity forms in the individual.
Aristotle speaks of
five forms of knowledge, one form for theory and two forms for practice. These
can be put together in this way:
Theory (Theoria a theoretical
activity)
Doing (Poiesis, a productive
activity,)
Acting (Praxis, an activity
with its own value)
Forms of knowledge
Science (Episteme)
Skill (Techne)
Practical wisdom (Fronesis)
Philosophical wisdom
(Sofia)
Insight (Nous)
I will concentrate on science,
skills and practical wisdom in this papir and not give so much attention to
philosophical wisdom and insight. Philosophical wisdom is a combination of
insight and practical wisdom. Insight is a form for intuition, an understanding
we have right before we meet something without having to discuse it in words (logos).
Skills develop through long-lasting
training of productive activity. We find the word theory in all European
languages. One develops scientific competence by working with theoretical
activities. Aristotle understands being practical on a richer and more varied level
than we do today. Aristotle differs between to do and to act and this is
important for Aristotle.
Praxis has become practice, which includes both doing and acting.
Aristotle meant something else. Praxis
stood for our actions, but could also imply the things we do. Doing and acting
was in the same way as theory, a human activity for Aristotle.
Techne stands for the skill that productive activity (of any kind)
creates in the individual. One becomes a musician by playing music. A person,
who practices long enough with speaking, can become a good speaker. The word
techne is often translated with art in this words old meaning. This is the same
as “craftsmanship”, or some kind of practical skill.
Fronesis is translated to Latin with prudential, which is the same as practical wisdom. This is about
collecting experience over time and building up a capability to act in specific
human situations.
Aristotle, in his Nicomachean Ethics, talks about theory
as a way of living. The Greek word theoria
does not mean the same as the word theory as we use it today. We most often
think of the objective result, the Greeks are inclined to think of the
activity. With theory in Nicomachean
Ethics, Aristotle did not mean the product of scientific activity which
comes forth in compositions and is stored in texts or other information media.
Aristotle meant the activity that is produced when we investigate the world
around us.
Scientific knowledge
was not, as for us, the attained scientific product, not the objective result,
but the subjective capacity to attain such results, through theoretical
activity. Theory was for Aristotle a theoretical activity, a productive
activity, even the highest form for activity a human could be concerned with.
Theory was therefore also a form for doing, a productive activity. If doing is
building a house, to compose melodies, to care for the sick (which
constructors, musicians and nurses do), than theory is a doing which is
concerned with using words objectively in different cases in order to describe
them and codify and store this descriptions for the knowledge and use for
others.
This productive
activity is best done by those scientists who have attained the ability to do
science (episteme) through studying
science (epistemology). One becomes
more scientific by practicing theoretical activity, which again makes us more
capable of understanding theory. A theory is therefore a special kind of
activity. A scientist is a person who has learned to work with theories.
Theories are the activities of a scientist, the same way as building a house is
the activity of a building worker.
To conceive the concepts of Aristotle
To create concepts is not to en capsulate, but rather as pointing with a
shaking finger or using a flashlight which blinks. An understanding which stems
from Plato is that concepts are definable and. Plato understands all concepts
as if they where geometrical. The concepts “triangles” or “horses” are
identical with the contents of their definitions. One can never completely
understand Aristotle if one starts with concepts that have permanent and
unambiguous definitions.
Aristotle says that one
must always remember that concepts are not physical structures. We can for
example talk about “shoe” as a common denominator for all shoes, but we can
also divide “shoe”, “sandals”, “boots”, etc. We use the word man as in
“mankind” and “human” to describe both men and woman. In some contexts we
differ between human and animals and in others we say that humans are animals.
Sound is both a sound and a noise. A bat is some ways a mouse and in other ways
a bird. The problem arises when we think of a bat as only a mouse or a
bird.
Three different forms for human existence
Acting means “action” in its strict form, but in it’s broaden meaning
acting can be understood with Aristotle as all forms of doings and in it’s
broadest meaning acting means “human existence”. These forms for living are
theory, doing and acting. In Aristotle Nicomachean
Ethics he talks about three different forms for human existence.
Theory (Theoria) An intellectual, theoretical life
(Bios theoretikos)
Acting (Praxis) Citizenship (Bios politikos)
Doing (Poiesis) The rational strive for
material benefit (Bios apolaustikos)
Theory and acting are something we want in it selves. Doing is a useful
activity which is valuable only for the good results which it causes. Aristotle
regarded “the good life” as citizenship (bios
politicos), even though an intellectual, theoretical life (bios theoretikos) was a higher form for
life activity. The fact that Aristotle praises theory as the highest form and
most sought-after activity stems from Plato, and can creates some confusion in
his way of thinking. It is clear that the concept of acting gives the best expression
for human action and life form at all. Even if theory is the highest form for
activity, it is acting that is the typical human paradigm for all human living.
Conclusion
We get a clear reflective form for knowledge, science (episteme), through theoretical activity,
and practical wisdom (fronesis)
through long-lasting reflective action (which means that we give meaning to
what we do). We get competence and skills (techne)
by doing something productive, by working with something creative in the existing
reality. To act is not the same as to do, but it is through what we do that our
actions can be seen and understood. Our skills differ from science, but at the
same time it is a form for science. Science can explain, and skills help us in
a productive activity. But to explain what one does is also science. Theory and
science are both activities and thereby capabilities which can be learned.
These words become, by help of the written language, a result of something one
does; formulating thesis, constructing theories, and writing text and books.
Theory and science are just forms of productive activity. The most important
concept according to Aristotle in order to live a good life is acting with the
corresponding capability, practical wisdom. Science is just the competence to
know, while skills are the competence to do a productive activity. It is the
concept of action (an understanding-creative activity) which leads to the
practical wisdom of bringing forth the knowing and doing which again can create
a meaningful life.
Kaare T. Pettersen
Literature:
Aristotle, [350 BC], 2000. Nicomachean
Ethics. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Ramírez, José Luis, 1995. Creative meaning. A contribution to a
human-scientific theory of
action. Stockholm: Nordic School
of Planning, diss.13. (Language:
Swedish).
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