Productive Knowledge in Ancient Philosophy The Concept of Technê

This work investigates how ancient philosophers understood productive knowledge or technê and used it to explain ethics, rhetoric, politics and cosmology. In eleven chapters leading scholars set out the ancient debates about technê from the Presocratic and Hippocratic writers, through Plato and Aristotle and the Hellenistic age (Stoics, Epicureans and Sceptics), ending in the Neoplatonism of Plotinus and Proclus. Amongst the many themes that come into focus are: the model status of ancient medicine in defining the political art, the similarities between the Platonic and Aristotelian conceptions of technê, the use of technê as a paradigm for virtue and practical rationality, technê?s determining role in Platonic conceptions of cosmology, technê?s relationship to experience and theoretical knowledge, virtue as an 'art of living', the adaptability of the criteria of technê to suit different skills, including philosophy itself, the use in productive knowledge of models, deliberation, conjecture and imagination.

Introduction; 1. Protagoras on Political Technê Edward Hussey; 2. Dynamic Modalities and Teleological Agency: Plato and Aristotle on Skill and Ability Tamer Nawar; 3. Technê as a Model for Virtue in Plato Rachel Barney; 4. Crafting the Cosmos: Plato on the Limitations of Divine Craftsmanship Thomas Kjeller Johansen; 5. Aristotle on Productive Understanding and Completeness Ursula Coope; 6. Technê and Empeiria: Aristotle on Practical Knowledge Robert Bolton; 7. The Stoics on Technê and the Technai Voula Tsouna; 8. The Epicureans on Technê and the Technai Voula Tsouna; 9. The Sceptic's Art: Varieties of Expertise in Sextus Empiricus Stefan Sienkiewicz; 10. Plotinus on the Arts Eyjólfur Kjalar Emilsson; 11. Productive Knowledge in Proclus Jan Opsomer.

Thomas Kjeller Johansen is a Professor of Philosophy in the Institute of Philosophy, Classics, History of Ideas and Art at the University of Oslo. He was previously a Professor of Ancient Philosophy at the University of Oxford and Tutorial Fellow at Brasenose College. He is the author of Aristotle on the Sense-Organs (Cambridge, 1997), Plato's Natural Philosophy (Cambridge, 2004) and The Powers of Aristotle's Soul (2012).