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Thursday, April 6, 2006 - 5:09amSanction this postReply
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There are so many issues in man's life which are commonly called "the art of..." and I would like to know if that's really art in the Objectivist sense. What I am talking about is e.g. the art of logic, the art of telling jokes, the art of playing poker...I think you know those sayings from your personal experience.

I ask because I am actually learning to play poker at the moment and now wonder if pokerplaying or more exactly improving my poker skills could correctly be called (learning/achieving) the the art of pokerplaying. If not I would ask what you consider skills like those above or those of a great football player or a gymnist to be.

GP




Post 1

Thursday, April 6, 2006 - 1:54pmSanction this postReply
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Rand said art is a selective re-creation of reality according to the artists attribution of significance.

I've argued the point here before (I leave it to you to search keywords like scott - art - science) that advanced scientific theory, not Edisonian hacking (pick 'n pray), is an art. Circuit analysis or integral calculus can give you a compact solution to complex systems, but they don't tell you how to compute a solution or balance a ship.

Our brains are neural-nets. As such, they are buzzing with chaotic modes which encode information, and are self-modifying.

Just as a person can musically improvise once they learn scales and have skill, once scientific principles are understood, they can take the axioms and high-level concepts to hypothesize, test and refine, then refine their reasoning based on results.

And like music, many scientists and engineers have ideas spring into their minds while they are not actively trying. Perhaps the "subconscious" is a consequence of neural regions pre-formatted by habit of contemplation, and in constant activity even when attention is on other matters. When the area finally integrates a solution, an alarm (the "aha!" response) interrupts the consciousness.

Scott



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Post 2

Thursday, April 6, 2006 - 4:43pmSanction this postReply
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Tok, I think the use of the word art in the examples you provide go back to the etymology of the word, "techne", technique...:

art (n.)
c.1225, "skill as a result of learning or practice," from O.Fr. art, from L. artem, (nom. ars) "art, skill, craft," from PIE *ar-ti- (cf. Skt. rtih "manner, mode;" Gk. arti "just," artios "complete;" Armenian arnam "make," Ger. art "manner, mode"), from base *ar- "fit together, join" (see arm (1)). In M.E. usually with sense of "skill in scholarship and learning" (c.1305), especially in the seven sciences, or liberal arts (divided into the trivium -- grammar, logic, rhetoric -- and the quadrivium --arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy). This sense remains in Bachelor of Arts, etc. Meaning "human workmanship" (as opposed to nature) is from 1386. Sense of "cunning and trickery" first attested c.1600. Meaning "skill in creative arts" is first recorded 1620; esp. of painting, sculpture, etc., from 1668. Broader sense of the word remains in artless (1589). As an adj. meaning "produced with conscious artistry (as opposed to popular or folk) it is attested from 1890, possibly from infl. of Ger. kunstlied "art song" (cf. art film, 1960; art rock, c.1970). Fine arts, "those which appeal to the mind and the imagination" first recorded 1767. Art brut "art done by prisoners, lunatics, etc.," is 1955, from Fr., lit. "raw art." Artsy "pretentiously artistic" is from 1902. Expression art for art's sake (1836) translates Fr. l'art pour l'art. First record of art critic is from 1865. Arts and crafts "decorative design and handcraft" first attested in the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, founded in London, 1888.

Main Entry: tech·ni·cal
Pronunciation: 'tek-ni-k&l
Function: adjective
Etymology: Greek technikos of art, skillful, from technE art, craft, skill; akin to Greek tektOn builder, carpenter, Latin texere to weave, Sanskrit taksati he fashions



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Thursday, April 6, 2006 - 4:49pmSanction this postReply
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OED?



Post 4

Thursday, April 6, 2006 - 5:35pmSanction this postReply
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Eytmology Online. :)



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