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Aristotle Bilingual Anthology : KNOWLEDGE OF PRINCIPLES AND CAUSES

from Aristotle's Metaphysics, * 980a-982a, translated by W. D. Ross, Greek Fonts

Page 4

Hence we think also that the masterworkers in each craft are more honourable and know in a truer sense and are wiser than the manual workers, because they know the causes of the things that are done (we think the manual workers are like certain lifeless things which act indeed, but act without knowing what they do, as fire burns,-but while the lifeless things perform each of their functions by a natural tendency, the labourers perform them through habit); thus we view them as being wiser not in virtue of being able to act, but of having the theory for themselves and knowing the causes. And in general it is a sign of the man who knows and of the man who does not know, that the former can teach, and therefore we think art more truly knowledge than experience is; for artists can teach, and men of mere experience cannot.

διὸ καὶ τοὺς ἀρχιτέκτονας περὶ ἕκαστον τιμιωτέρους καὶ μᾶλλον εἰδέναι νομίζομεν τῶν χειροτεχνῶν καὶ σοφωτέρους͵ ὅτι τὰς αἰτίας τῶν ποιουμένων ἴσασιν (τοὺς δ΄͵ ὥσπερ καὶ τῶν ἀψύχων ἔνια ποιεῖ μέν͵ οὐκ εἰδότα δὲ ποιεῖ ἃ ποιεῖ͵ οἷον καίει τὸ πῦρ - τὰ μὲν οὖν ἄψυχα φύσει τινὶ ποιεῖν τούτων ἕκαστον τοὺς δὲ χειροτέχνας δι΄ ἔθος)͵ ὡς οὐ κατὰ τὸ πρακτικοὺς εἶναι σοφωτέρους ὄντας ἀλλὰ κατὰ τὸ λόγον ἔχειν αὐτοὺς καὶ τὰς αἰτίας γνωρίζειν. ὅλως τε σημεῖον τοῦ εἰδότος καὶ μὴ εἰδότος τὸ δύνασθαι διδάσκειν ἐστίν͵ καὶ διὰ τοῦτο τὴν τέχνην τῆς ἐμπειρίας ἡγούμεθα μᾶλλον ἐπιστήμην εἶναι· δύνανται γάρ͵ οἱ δὲ οὐ δύνανται διδάσκειν.

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Reference address : https://www.ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/ancient-greece/aristotle_wisdom.asp?pg=4