Questions on the Metaphysics of Aristotle

Question Four

QUESTION FOUR Text of Aristotle: “Science and art come to men through experience , for ‘experience produced art,’ as Polus rightly says, ‘but inexperience luck’.” (Metaphysics I, ch. 1, 981a 1-5) Is art the fruit of experience? 1 [1] Does experience produce art as the Philosopher seems to say in the text?1 [Arguments Pro and Con] That it does not: According to the Philosopher in the text,2 to have knowledge of many individual instances of something is a matter of experience , but to have knowledge of it in all cases is a matter of art. But from many cases one cannot conclude to all, but this is [a fallacy of] the consequent [according to the statement above]; therefore, etc. 2 Also, according to the text,3 men of experience know the simple fact that something is so, but those who possess the art know the reasoned fact. But from a knowledge of the simple fact one cannot infer knowledge of the reasoned fact. 3 Also, if from many experiences art was produced, then I ask: What kind of cause is expressed by the word “from”? It is surely not the formal or the final cause. Hence, it must be either the material or the efficient cause. Now it is not the material, because matter is a part of the thing and remains after a thing has been made. Experimental knowledge is of individuals, which is not a part of the universal knowledge that art gives. Neither is it the second, for then art either stems from an univocal efficient cause, and the effect and cause would be of the same species, which is false; or art 1 Aristotle, Metaphysics I, ch. 1, 981a 5. 2 Aristotle, Metaphysics I, ch. 1, 981a 6-14. 3 Aristotle, Metaphysics I, ch. 1, 981a 29-30. 84 THE METAPHYSIS OF JOHN DUNS SCOTUS stems from an equivocal cause, and then the efficient cause would be more noble than the effect, which is also false, because art is more noble than experience. 4 Also, according to the opinion of Plato,4 art and science are in man by nature; therefore, art is not produced in this way from experience. Proof of the antecedent is that Plato5 asked a boy who had never been taught about the art of geometry. When the lad was asked about geometric principles and conclusions he answered all correctly. But then it is argued: No one responds rightly to what he is ignorant of. Now this boy responded correctly to the right questions, and yet he had never been taught this; therefore, etc. 5 [2] Also, it does not seem from the text6 that art is generated by a single experience—just as experience does not stem from one memory, therefore, it has to be from many. But many experiences of the same sort are simply knowledge of many singular instances of the same kind. These cognitions, since they are accidents of the same species, cannot simultaneously exist in the same experiencing potency, namely, some cognitive or other faculty, whatever i t might be. Therefore, art can never be generated from experiences, since several cannot coexist; therefore, etc. 6 Also, Augustine, in his Eighty-three Questions q. 9,7 says: “Truth in any genuine sense is not something to be expected from the bodily senses.” He proves this first because every sensible is continually changeable; but from such there is no certain sense perception, and if such be the case, experience would never come from such, and hence neither would any art. 7 Also, Augustine, in the same place,8 argues secondly that since all sensibles are sensed through a species [of the object], the sense cannot perceive whether or not it is affected by a true object, or only by its species. But one must not expect certain truth from any perceptual potency that cannot distinguish between a true or false 4 Plato, Meno (81d-84); cf. Augustine, De Trinitate XII, ch. 15, n. 24 (PL 42, 1011; CCL 50, 377-378). 5 Plato, Meno (81d-84). 6 Aristotle, Metaphysics I, ch. 1, 981a 6-7. 7 Augustine, De diversis quaestionibus 83, q. 9 (PL 40, 13; CCL 44A, 16). 8 Ibid. BOOK I QUESTION FOUR 85 object. Therefore, from experimental sense knowledge one will never have any certain universal cognition, such as art is. 8 The Philosopher maintains the opposite in the text cited, as...