Philosophy & ThoughtGreek → English
Techne
/ˈtɛkni/noun
Knowing how to make or do something well: the skilled command of a craft, taught and learned.
The Greek roots
τέχνη
tékhnē
craft, art, skill
Literally: “craft knowledge”
Follow a root:τέχνη6 words
The story of the word
τέχνη covers carpentry, medicine, navigation and rhetoric without distinguishing art from trade, a division the Greeks did not draw. Aristotle set it against ἐπιστήμη, knowledge of what cannot be otherwise, and against φρόνησις, the practical wisdom that governs how to live rather than what to produce. Technology, technique and architect all sit on it, the last as ἀρχιτέκτων, chief craftsman.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → English
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
technologytechniquearchitectpolytechnic
In a sentence
Aristotle treats medicine as techne: the doctor can explain why the treatment works.
The seminar spent a week on techne and never once said the word skill.