William Ames defines art as a mental form or idea, and then he defines it by what it is not.
First, Ames says that every person who acts does so because of a form, or idea, which preexists in himself.
He gives the example of an architect who builds a house. The architect already has the idea of a house in his mind before he begins to build it.
There are two ways a person can act from an idea. One is according to his inherent nature and the other is according to counsel, or via his intellect.
This definition of art as idea reminds me of the famous "definition of a horse" scene from Dickens' Hard Times. "Girl Number Twenty" couldn't prove to Mr. Gradgrind's satisfaction that she knew what a horse is. She couldn't communicate the idea of a horse by simply listing facts about horses. Clearly, she had a good idea of what a horse was since she was a good rider and had grown up with circus horses. But Mr. Gradgrind said that "Girl Number Twenty possessed no facts." Instead, he was pleased by the recitation of a student who had no actual experience with horses. That student rattled off a list of facts about horses, such as that they have four legs and forty teeth and eat grain. But those facts do not put the idea of a horse into our minds by themselves.
When it comes to the liberal arts, Ames says that having the idea of an art in our minds precedes our actions. This is a different approach than thinking of grammar, for example, as the memorization of lists of facts about several subjects. If grammar is an art, it is an idea, or form, in the mind for the purpose of a specific sort of action, and allows something to be done according to the idea in mind - just as an architect builds a house because he has the idea of a house in his mind.
Of course, an architect has in mind, as part of the idea of the house, all the rules for house-building, and what types of materials are best suited to each purpose in the house, and a plan for methodical construction. These things ought to be memorized in order to be a good house-builder, and they are part of the idea of a house. But the act of memorizing these things is not the idea of the house itself. If someone memorizes a list of the materials used to build a house but has never seen a house himself, he has no more idea of a house in his mind than an alien creature in a far off galaxy.
Now for a list of what Ames says an art is not.
An art is not:
First, Ames says that every person who acts does so because of a form, or idea, which preexists in himself.
He gives the example of an architect who builds a house. The architect already has the idea of a house in his mind before he begins to build it.
There are two ways a person can act from an idea. One is according to his inherent nature and the other is according to counsel, or via his intellect.
This definition of art as idea reminds me of the famous "definition of a horse" scene from Dickens' Hard Times. "Girl Number Twenty" couldn't prove to Mr. Gradgrind's satisfaction that she knew what a horse is. She couldn't communicate the idea of a horse by simply listing facts about horses. Clearly, she had a good idea of what a horse was since she was a good rider and had grown up with circus horses. But Mr. Gradgrind said that "Girl Number Twenty possessed no facts." Instead, he was pleased by the recitation of a student who had no actual experience with horses. That student rattled off a list of facts about horses, such as that they have four legs and forty teeth and eat grain. But those facts do not put the idea of a horse into our minds by themselves.
When it comes to the liberal arts, Ames says that having the idea of an art in our minds precedes our actions. This is a different approach than thinking of grammar, for example, as the memorization of lists of facts about several subjects. If grammar is an art, it is an idea, or form, in the mind for the purpose of a specific sort of action, and allows something to be done according to the idea in mind - just as an architect builds a house because he has the idea of a house in his mind.
Of course, an architect has in mind, as part of the idea of the house, all the rules for house-building, and what types of materials are best suited to each purpose in the house, and a plan for methodical construction. These things ought to be memorized in order to be a good house-builder, and they are part of the idea of a house. But the act of memorizing these things is not the idea of the house itself. If someone memorizes a list of the materials used to build a house but has never seen a house himself, he has no more idea of a house in his mind than an alien creature in a far off galaxy.
Now for a list of what Ames says an art is not.
An art is not:
- a habit
- a teaching
- a discipline
- a faculty
- a book
- a system
- a virtue
Regarding habit, Ames says that sometimes arts are called habits because habits give us the ability to do work. But Ames thinks that a habit is actually an adjunct or effect of developing an art as an idea, rather than an art itself.
While the teaching of virtue is a part of each art, and while the Greeks called the science of things virtue because the science (the study of the truth) of things leads to virtuous actions, arts are not virtues according to Ames. He says that because arts lead to virtuous action, they are often called "intellectual virtues," and that is why some people think that we get the word "art" from the Greek word for virtue (αρετή). Here is where things get a little sticky. Lee Gibbs says that Ames rejected the derivation of the Latin word for "art" from the Greek word for virtue which was explained by Servius, Augustine, and Aurelius Cassiodorus. Ames really doesn't want to define art as virtue because he thinks that only the art of theology teaches virtue explicitly. Gibbs explains that Ames thought that science is only a judgment of the mind, rather than an idea, and while judgments about truth can help a person want to do virtuous actions, judgments aren't skill-enabling ideas by themselves. This leads Ames to end thesis eight:
Nevertheless, virtue can hardly be for us the reason of the genus or the general essence of art.I don't really understand all this, but at least I've got it summarized so I can think about it for a few days.
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