Craftsmen in the MoDern World
What even are craftsmen? We have this word but don’t fully understand what it means. They seem to be those who deal with the arts. But these arts are a segway between nature (not the inner primary principle of motion and rest, buy the created material universe) and ICT’s (Information and Communication Technologies). They primarily deal with tangible or material things found in nature and move further away from technological achievements, that is, making a product from technological systems. We know that they exist because of the material result that comes from it. It is distinct from electronic communicative achievements because, in a sense, these electronics appear to disobey a principal law of philosophy—to have the world at your fingertips with little dimension seems intuitively “off”.
J.R.R. Tolkien speaks of the summit, in some way, of the craftsmen. While speaking of his idea which he dubs ‘sub-creation’, he says: “What really happens, is that the story-maker proves a successful ‘sub-creator’. He makes a Secondary World which your mind can enter. Inside it, what he relates is ‘true’".” (Carpenter, 194). This seems to be the model for the craftsman: the pivotal sub-creator is he that can make a product that one’s mind can enter. Tolkien contirues: “…it accords with the laws of that world. You therefore believe it, while you are, as it were, inside. The moment disbelief arises, the spell is broken; the magic, or rather art, has failed. You are then out in the Primary World again, looking at the little abortive Secondary World from the outside” (195).
There seem to be different levels or degrees of craftsmen, corresponding to the weight of their craft. First, stonemen and metal workers who work with stone and metal. Second, there are woodworkers: those who work with wood and plants. Third, there are those craftsmen who work with animals. This includes animal keeping. Fourth, there are those who work with the intellect—those who work with books and stories. But this is a way of looking at things from a material standpoint. It seems that we should rather categorize things according to their object. What we mean is that we should not look at things from simply a material point of view, but by their form, archetype, or object which they produce. This is the formal cause in philosophy, which is closely linked to the final cause. So, rather than categorizing by the material cause, we should categorize by the formal cause. The question then asked is what does this material produce in accordance with the transcendentals. The first transcendental that we will speak of is beauty. Beauty has three parts: proportionality, clarity, and integrity. A second is goodness. Goodness is what all men desire. The third is truth. Truth is the conformity of the mind to reality. Good craftsmanship ought to display a more or less transcendent object. The highest is God, and the lowest is inanimate reality. That is why it is strange to find a sculpture of a rock.
