The choice between these terms seems to be still unsettled, and no one
seems to know rightly on what grounds it should be decided, and yet the
thing is simple. We have already said elsewhere that “knowing” is
something different from “doing.” The two are so different that they
should not easily be mistaken the one for the other. The “doing” cannot
properly stand in any book, and therefore also Art should never be the
title of a book. But because we have once accustomed ourselves to
combine in conception, under the name of theory of Art, or simply Art,
the branches of knowledge (which may be separately pure sciences)
necessary for the practice of an Art, therefore it is consistent to
continue this ground of distinction, and to call everything Art when
the object is to carry out the “doing” (being able), as for example,
Art of building; Science, when merely knowledge is the object; as
Science of mathematics, of astronomy. That in every Art certain
complete sciences may be included is intelligible of itself, and should
not perplex us. But still it is worth observing that there is also no
science without a mixture of Art. In mathematics, for instance, the use
of figures and of algebra is an Art, but that is only one amongst many
instances. The reason is, that however plain and palpable the
difference is between knowledge and power in the composite results of
human knowledge, yet it is difficult to trace out their line of
separation in man himself.
2. DIFFICULTY OF SEPARATING PERCEPTION FROM JUDGMENT.
(ART OF WAR.)
All thinking is indeed Art. Where the logician draws the line, where
the premises stop which are the result of cognition—where judgment
begins, there Art begins. But more than this even the perception of the
mind is judgment again, and consequently Art; and at last, even the
perception by the senses as well. In a word, if it is impossible to
imagine a human being possessing merely the faculty of cognition,
devoid of judgment or the reverse, so also Art and Science can never be
completely separated from each other. The more these subtle elements of
light embody themselves in the outward forms of the world, so much the
more separate appear their domains; and now once more, where the object
is creation and production, there is the province of Art; where the
object is investigation and knowledge Science holds sway.—After all
this it results of itself that it is more fitting to say Art of War
than Science of War.
So much for this, because we cannot do without these conceptions. But
now we come forward with the assertion that War is neither an Art nor a
Science in the real signification, and that it is just the setting out
from that starting-point of ideas which has led to a wrong direction
being taken, which has caused War to be put on a par with other arts
and sciences, and has led to a number of erroneous analogies.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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