背诵9-The Classification of Knowledge

Aristotle divided knowledge into three major classes: 'all thought is either practical or productive or theoretical'. The productive sciences are those concerned with the making of things -- cosmetics, farming, art and engineering. Aristotle himself had relatively little to say about productive knowledge. The Rhetoric and the Poetics are his only surviving exercises in that area. (Poetics in Greek is poiētikē and that is the word translated as 'productive' in the phrase 'the productive sciences.) The practical sciences are concerned with action, with how men are to act in various circumstances. The Ethics and the Politics are Aristotle's chef contributions to the practical sciences.