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Post Index

Post Index
  1. Intro Definition of Technometry
  2. Famous Ramus
  3. Humanism
  4. The Puritans, the Moderns, and Classical Christian Education
  5. Technometry: Theses 1-3 - Art
  6. Technometry: Theses 4-8 - The Arts are Ideas
  7. Technometry: Theses 9-21 - Eupraxia and Imitation
  8. Technometry: Thesis 22-30 - Arranging Eupraxia
  9. Technometry: Theses 31-37 - Euprattomenon, or Things Made by the Arts
  10. Technometry: Thesis 38-47 - The Best Known Force of Art
  11. Technometry: Theses 48-60 - Types - Metaphysics?

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William Ames's Technometry

I have been studying the philosophy and history of education as a hobby intermittently for many years. My interest in the subject just continues to grow as I have the blessing of educating my own children at home.  In the last several years, I have been focusing on reading more Reformed and Puritan authors and collecting evidence of their thoughts on education. I am currently working through the book "Technometry" by William Ames, with translation and commentary by Lee W. Gibbs.  After I finish typing up my summaries of that book here, I plan to type up my notes from writings on education by Machen and Van Til in the 20th Century, some of the Humanist Reformers in the 16th Century, and other Puritans besides Ames in the 17th Century. Gibbs calls Ames the "Father of American Theology."  I have found that educational philosophy is inseparable from theology, and every theologian has had something to say about education.  Before progressive modern education...
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Technometry: Theses 22-30 - Arranging Eupraxiae

In theses 22-30 of Technometry, Ames explains his reasoning for listing the eupraxiae , and the liberal arts, in the order that he does.  It's important to note that he doesn't list them in the order in which they ought to be studied, but in order of specialty and dependency.  Some arts cannot exist without other arts.  Some arts become concrete in other arts.  For example, you can't do physics without math.  So Ames lists math before physics because physics depends on math, but math doesn't depend upon physics.  While this implies that we ought to learn math before physics, it becomes a bit more complicated when we look at trivium rather than the quadrivium. Here is Ames's order of the arts and their defined eupraxiae: 1. Logic, for discoursing (arguing and reasoning). 2. Grammar, for speaking. 3. Rhetoric, for communicating. 4. Mathematics (arithmetic and geometry), for measuring. 5. Physics, for doing the work of nature. 6. Theology, for living....
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Technometry: Theses 1-3 - Art

Technometry, which adequately circumscribes the Boundaries and the Ends of all the Arts and of every individual Art - William Ames The "arts" Ames is discussing are the liberal arts, which include grammar, logic, rhetoric, math, physics, and theology. His first thesis is that an art is an idea of good action, specifically defined by universal rules.  In thesis three, Ames explains that an art is: a model to represent an action, formed in the mind of a person, before he needs to act, for the purpose of acting correctly. Elsewhere he says that art is the regular disposition or instruction of a thing, in existence and operation, agreeably to its end. The art of grammar, for example, is a model of action taught to students in order to form in their minds the representation of the right action they should take when reading or writing.  Ames clarifies that an art is not a subject .  For example, the art of grammar is applied to the subject of languages and...
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