Part I: Man the Philosophical Animal, continued

There are three primary directions that human activity can take, and these are the three dimensions that make up and describe any person. They are:

1. Man the maker – the artist or artisan,
2. Man the doer – the moral and social being, and
3. Man the knower – the student and teacher.

It is important to point out that the knower doesn’t have a monopoly on thinking. All three are thinkers, although you could say that the maker entertains more “productive” thought and the doer more “practical,” as opposed to the knower’s “theoretical” or “speculative” thought.

Aristotle himself wrote on each of these kinds of thinking. His defining work on the “productive” sphere is titled Poetics. It isn’t merely about poetry, though; the Greek word from which we get the word poetry is a general term for any kind of making, not just making art. People don’t only care about making art; there are countless more “useful” things that people make, and can take pride in making well.

Here, Adler takes a step back to bring up some much grander terms: truth, goodness, and beauty. These are the universal values that appeal to human nature, and they correspond to the three dimensions of human thought.

• Man the maker is concerned with beauty, with trying to produce well-made things.
• Man the doer, both as an individual and a member of society, is concerned with good and evil, right and wrong.
• Man the knower is concerned with truth.

I have to admit – it gives me a bit of a thrill that these correspond so well with my concept of Garra Ronnie Res (in the same order, no less!). Whether that is a reflection of the timeless truth of Aristotle’s message or something more cosmically significant, it is kind of exciting that it came to me in a dream.