Abstract
The present chapter will both establish conclusions and set up a direction toward a fuller understanding of craftsmanship. The purpose is to consider some of the possibilities that the pursuit of craftsmanship and what happens when its conditions of perpetuation are postponed. Several tensions are brought forth by sprezzatura, leisure, and community. Craftsmanship is not unlike Bildung, a principle of becoming, a transformational stance, a motif of self-knowledge, responsibility toward new generations, synthesis in interdiscipline and a line of resistance against conformity.
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Notes
- 1.
“C’est une grande habileté que de savoir cacher son habileté” La Rochefoucauld (1868, p. 131 [my translation]).
- 2.
An idea synthesized in Theodor Lipps’ (1912) concept of Einfühlung. I have preferred not to go into a discussion on the concept of Einfühlung in Chap. 2, since it would have taken us off-course, but this is a central notion that cannot be overlooked. For a contemporary reading of Einfühlung along these very lines, see Spuybroek (2016, Chap. 3). In musical terms, ‘sympathetic resonance’ refers to the phenomenon where strings (or other vibrating objects) are excited according to others’ similar frequency despite not being attacked directly.
- 3.
i.e., Adorno and Horkheimer (2002).
- 4.
While the issue of responsivity was outlined in Chap. 2, it progressively melded with responsibility (Chap. 3). It is hard to provide an account for the development of skillful action without pointing out the complementarity between aesthetics and ethics. A distinction between the two might be artificial for a stoic but may be illustrative at times when they are to be reincorporated into techniques, even if to be reunited again. This very responsivity/responsibility pairing was brought up as ‘response-ability’ by educational theorist Gert Biesta (2006)—also see Ingold (2017). This pairing contrasts with a state-oriented approach to technical activity that can come to reduce the latter either to the production of commodities or to monetary value; for an alternative process-oriented approach see Howard (1982); Ingold (2013).
- 5.
Hadot (1993, p. 50).
- 6.
In Cassirer’s extensive formulation on mythical thought, the latter appears in a wealth of valuations that are not necessarily formulated—in that, it shares traits with phyisognomic perception. By the same token, a scientific approach (even positivistic) is not deprived of mythical thought in its formation (Cassirer 1965). Analytic philosphy also acknowledged the same issue: “Baptism as washing – An error arises only when magic is interpreted scientifically” (Wittgenstein, 2020, p. 148) “Frazer’s representation of human magical and religious notions is unsatisfactory: it makes these notions appear as mistakes” (op cit. p. 98).
- 7.
Han (2015).
- 8.
See, for example Rosa (2013).
- 9.
Jonas (1974).
- 10.
- 11.
An ideal that can be found among followers of Heidegger’s view on technology, which often draws the attention of luddites (for a commentary on the subject, see Ihde, 1979). Although seeking a different kind of refuge from industrialization, nineteenth century Arts and Crafts Movement also cultivated the notion of “an ideal place for tired humanity” (Morris, 2004). It would be rather far-fetched to take a present-day perspective and accuse the Arts and Crafts Movement of advancing a rigid (and hence fragile) relationship between social development and technical activity.
- 12.
The motif ars est celare artem [true art conceals the means by which it is achieved] is implied, but in my treatment of the motif concealment is only partial, and less prominent than in D’Angelo’s (2018) examination. This motif goes back to roman times, if not earlier. Some of the tensions I would like to portray here are also present in Greek mētis (Μῆτις: usually translated as wisdom, skill, or craft). Just as sprezzatura is counterbalanced by affectation, praxis often plays the noble, action-ridden side of poiesis, which implies fabrication of some sort. Since the link between Greek and Roman traditions would make a much lengthier text, I invite the interested reader to consult Detienne and Vernant’s (1975) in-depth treatment of the subject.
- 13.
Traditions from other eras and regions can exemplify similar motions. Aspects of Japanese iki, wabi-sabi, or Arabic sinā’a and tarab share similar traits.
- 14.
Castiglione’s work should be considered a representative among a wider-ranging literature concerning ‘artful living’. A derivation of sprezzatura can be found around a century later in Baltasar Gracián’s work (2004) [1647] as despejo [fluency].
- 15.
Brazilian singer and songwriter Chico Buarque skillfully captured sprezzatura in soccer: To curve that ball/Like that player did/As a composer does/To dribble just so/What a painter/To exhibit in a gallery, baby!/A fundamental painting/In a chip/With the accuracy of an arrow-like swerving shot. [Para tirar efeito/Igual ao jogador/Qual compositor/Para aplicar uma firula exata/Que pintor/Para emplacar em que pinacoteca, nega/Pintura mais fundamental/Que um chute a gol/Com precisão de flecha e folha seca] (Buarque, 1989, my translation).
- 16.
Mason (1962, p. 23).
- 17.
In Toulmin’s (2003) thesis, this translates into the rational overthrowing what is reasonable.
- 18.
Adamson (2013, p. 5, emphasis in the original).
- 19.
Langlands (2017).
- 20.
In this sense, sprezzatura favors natura naturans over natura naturata, process over state, motion over stillness.
- 21.
Since grace (from the Greek ‘charis’) comes from a longstanding tradition, it is worthwhile highlighting that its understanding is not reducible to the contrast I am presenting between grace and sprezzattura. Concepts work mainly by contrast (chiaroscuro) and they suffer when they are taken out of their mileux. For a richer approach to the notion of grace—complementary to the points covered here—, see Spuybroek (2020).
- 22.
D’Angelo (2018, p. 7). It might be important to note that unlike D’Angelo, I am not emphasizing the concealment of art, since as the notion of expression shows, it is not always up to the artist or performer to willfully impose or even hide certain value/form/sense ensemble.
- 23.
Taylor (1979).
- 24.
Castiglione (1976, I, 28).
- 25.
Campo (1987, p. 128, my translation).
- 26.
- 27.
Castiglione (1976, p. 42).
- 28.
D’Angelo (2018, pp. 36–37, added emphasis).
- 29.
Pye (1968).
- 30.
Klemp et al. (2008), Rojas (2015).
- 31.
- 32.
- 33.
While discussing the political (vita activa) dimension involved in the crises in education and culture, Arendt’s (1961) argument also addresses the eradication of developmental processes by promoting the ready-made: “So far as politics is concerned, this involves of course a serious misconception: instead of joining with one’s equals in assuming the effort of persuasion and running the risk of failure, there is dictatorial intervention, based upon the absolute superiority of the adult, and the attempt to produce the new as a fait accompli, that is, as though the new already existed” (pp. 176–177).
- 34.
- 35.
Pieper (1963, p. 57).
- 36.
Pieper (1963, p. 40).
- 37.
- 38.
Ingold (2020).
- 39.
Seneca (2004, p. 73).
- 40.
Tönnies (2001, p. 17).
- 41.
Arendt (1961, pp. 201–202). For another useful commentary on philistinism, see Nabokov (1981). Also note that one of the manifestations of philistinism is to engage in and to produce bullshit. Here I am not using this term in its everyday sense (which might also work), but on Frankfurt’s (1988) elaboration on the concept. Beyond the production of bullshit in spaces like social media, cultured philistinism has taken over academia, turning the production of academic bullshit into a truly institutionalized market.
- 42.
“To believe that such a society will become more ‘cultured’ as time goes on and education has done its work, is, I think, a fatal mistake. The point is that a consumers’ society cannot possibly know how to take care of a world and the things which belong exclusively to the space of worldly appearances, because its central attitude toward all objects, the attitude of consumption, spells ruin to everything it touches” (Arendt, op cit, p. 211).
- 43.
Ruskin (1867, p. 69).
- 44.
Roger Kneebone (2020) has illustrated how seemingly divergent crafts can come together and learn from each other. His work with tailors and potters shows how surgeons can gain acuteness in their work with human tissue by understanding how other materials, such as cloth and clay are handled.
- 45.
Watson (2010) has referred to these reprisals in terms of successive renaissances. Namely, moments where humanity has reformulated what it deems as perennial, humanistic values (around 1100, 1500 and 1800).
- 46.
Watson (2010, p. 54).
- 47.
Humboldt (2000).
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Rojas, P. (2021). Craftsmanship Reprised. In: Reprising Craftsmanship. SpringerBriefs in Psychology(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80132-8_5
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