Episteme and Techne
Updated 2026-09-10
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
This entry examines a pair of ancient Greek concepts, episteme, usually translated as knowledge, and techne, usually translated as craft or art, and asks whether translating them through the modern distinction between theory and practice is appropriate. In Greek contexts knowledge and craft often share criteria such as teachability, the ability to give reasons, and concern with real causes, so the boundary between them varies with each philosopher.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Separate kinds of knowledge: decide whether a competence requires giving an account of causes or only a reliable knack. - Question the dichotomy: challenge the assumption that understanding principles and being able to act are cleanly separable. - Recover the shared criteria: check whether both terms answer to teachability and the giving of reasons.
Anchor fast decisions
Our own era takes pure mathematics as the paradigm of theory, though it has no obvious bearing on practical problems, and even theoretical physics relates loosely to confirming experiment. In ancient Greek contexts, by contrast, knowledge and craft often shared criteria such as being teachable, being able to give reasons, and concerning real causes, so the border between them shifted with each philosopher.
MINIMUM ACTION
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Source support: Explicit
- plato.stanford.eduhttps://plato.stanford.edu/entries/episteme-techne/verified
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