Abstract
The classical hierarchy of the arts and sciences had subordinated the merely useful mechanical arts associated with technology, to the liberal arts (as philosophy, poetry, music) which have their own intrinsic nobility. This went along with the exaltation of theoretical science over “banausic” or slavishly practical activities. For Aristotle at the top of the hierarchy of the sciences stood First Philosophy (Metaphysics) whose very inutility was referred to as evidence of its superior nobility and excellence. Bacon launched the modern revolution by reconceiving of the aim of knowledge as power over nature. This had the effect of entirely overturning the classical hierarchy of the arts. From the perspective of utility with respect to technological power it is the mechanical arts which have the highest worth and value among the sciences. Correspondingly the liberal arts began a long process of decline. In particular the value of the once supreme theoretic science of metaphysics became in modernity increasingly called into question. In essence technology has overthrown metaphysics.
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Notes
- 1.
Op. Cit. 752 – Hugh of St. Victor says …philosophia aliquo modo ad omnes res pertinere dicitur– “philosophy in a certain way is said to pertains to all things”. (my trans.)
- 2.
Cf. St. Thomas Aquinas . Summa Theologica. ST. II-II, Q. 182.
- 3.
From the Advancement of Learning (Book Two) In Francis Bacon: The Major Works. 178.
- 4.
“Nec manus nuda, nec intellectus sibi permissus, multum valet…Atque ut instrumenta manus motum aut cient aut regnum; ita et instrumenta mentis intellectui aut suggerunt aut cavent.” Latin text can be found at http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/bacon/bacon.liber1.shtml (accessed January 16, 2016). English text is from Bacon’s New Organon.(F. Anderson ed.),39.
- 5.
From The Advancement of Learning. Book One in) In Francis Bacon: The Major Works, 144.
- 6.
Idem.
- 7.
Plato . The Apology. 29e-30a.
- 8.
Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics . I.8.2.
References
Aquinas, St. Thomas. 1947 Summa Theologica. Trans. Dominican Fathers of the English Province. At DHS priory. http://dhspriory.org/thomas/summa/SS/SS182.html#SSQ182OUTP1.
Bacon, Francis. 1620 (1960). The New Organon. Fulton H. Anderson (ed.) New York: Macmillan Publishing Company
———. In the Latin Library. http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/bacon/bacon.liber1.shtml. Accessed May 2018.
———. 2008. Francis Bacon: The Major Works. Oxford: Oxfor University Press.
Hugh of St. Victor. Erudutionis Didascalicae. Libri Septem. (Liber Secundus. XXI). In Documenta Catholica. http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/02m/1096-1141,_Hugo_De_S_Victore,_Eruditionis_Didascalicae_Libri_Septem,_MLT.pdf. From Migne Patrologia. Accessed May 2018.
Plato. 2001 (reprint). Euthyphro. Apology. Crito.Phaedo. Phaedrus. Ed. Jeffrey Henderson. Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press.
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Rosenthal-Pubul, A.S. (2018). Technology Displaces Metaphysics – Bacon’s New Hierarchy of the Arts and Sciences. In: The Theoretic Life - A Classical Ideal and its Modern Fate. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02281-5_8
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