NICOMACHEANETHICS(BOOKVI) 193
or not they continue to be true when removed from our observation. Therefore, an
object of scientific knowledge exists of necessity, and is, consequently, eternal. For
everything that exists of necessity in an unqualified sense is eternal, and what is eternal
is ungenerated and imperishable [and hence cannot be otherwise].
Moreover, all scientific knowledge is held to be teachable, and what is scientifi-
cally knowable is capable of being learned. All teaching is based on what is already
known, as we have stated in the Analytics;some teaching proceeds by induction and
some by syllogism. Now, induction is the starting point [for knowledge] of the univer-
sal as well [as the particular], while syllogism proceeds fromuniversals. Consequently,
there are starting points or principles from which a syllogism proceeds and which are
themselves not arrived at by a syllogism. It is, therefore, induction that attains them.
Accordingly, scientific knowledge is a capacity for demonstration and has, in addition,
all the other qualities which we have specified in the Analytics.When a man believes
something in the way there specified, and when the starting points or principles on
which his beliefs rest are known to him, then he has scientific knowledge; unless he
knows the starting points or principles better than the conclusion, he will have scien-
tific knowledge only incidentally. So much for our definition of scientific knowledge
or pure science.
- (b) Art or Applied Science:Things which admit of being other than they are
include both things made and things done. Production is different from action—for that
point we can rely even on our less technical discussions. Hence, the characteristic of act-
ing rationally is different from the characteristic of producing rationally. It also follows
that one does not include the other, for action is not production nor production action.
Now, building is an art or applied science, and it is essentially a characteristic or trained
ability of rationally producing. In fact, there is no art that is not a characteristic or trained
ability of rationally producing, nor is there a characteristic of rationally producing that is
not an art. It follows that art is identical with the characteristic of producing under the
guidance of true reason. All art is concerned with the realm of coming-to-be, i.e., with
contriving and studying how something which is capable both of being and of not being
may come into existence, a thing whose starting point or source is in the producer and
not in the thing produced. For art is concerned neither with things which exist or come
into being by necessity, nor with things produced by nature: these have their source of
motion within themselves.
Since production and action are different, it follows that art deals with production
and not with action. In a certain sense, fortune and art are concerned with the same
things, as Agathon says: “Fortune loves art and art fortune.” So, as we have said, art is a
characteristic of producing under the guidance of true reason, and lack of art, on the
contrary, is a characteristic of producing under the guidance of false reason; and both of
them deal with what admits of being other than it is. - (c) Practical Wisdom:We may approach the subject of practical wisdom by
studying the persons to whom we attribute it. Now, the capacity of deliberating well
about what is good and advantageous for oneself is regarded as typical of a man of prac-
tical wisdom—not deliberating well about what is good and advantageous in a partial
sense, for example, what contributes to health or strength, but what sort of thing con-
tributes to the good life in general. This is shown by the fact that we speak of men as
having practical wisdom in a particular respect, i.e., not in an unqualified sense, when
they calculate well with respect to some worthwhile end, one that cannot be attained by
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