Механичните изкуства и идеята за "практическата рационалност"
Mechanical Arts and the Idea of the "Practical Rationality" in the Middle Ages

Summary/Abstract: The focus of this paper is on the idea of ‘practical rationality’ during the Middle age and its relationship to the historical evolution of the so called ‘Mechanical Arts’. The author’s starting point is the assumption that an understanding of the ‘practical rationality’ phenomenon in the early and high middle ages should be linked to the strengthening and improvement of the human productive, intellectual and moral activity. At the surface it appears that medieval people had nothing else to do but repeat and comment on the earlier scientific and educational models and the existing programmes in Arts in order to find the appropriate for them and for their intellectual capacities model and try to understand its meaning according to the ancient thinkers. In fact, they were not just and only some humble imitators. The intellectual reassessment they have done is evident in the transformations made in intellectual and textual realms in the 11th and 12th century Latin world, as well as in the technological innovations of that period. While the mechanical arts alongside the “Liberal arts” shaped the idea about what an educated person must know and do in order to subscribe to the century old cannon, from the 12th century onward they represented the change and the technological advancement efforts.

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