Dear Fiona,

I want to agree with you and do so on the basis of a distinction that requires a
disagreement with the way you state two important issues.

The intellect does not reside in the hands any more than it resides in the belly or the
feet. The idea that this is so gives rise to confusions that make it easy to disagree
with your position where greater clarity would support the core of your argument.

A rich body and growing body of literature supports the concept of "the embodied
mind." The intellect and the emotions work together, along with the many qualities of
physical experience linked to experience-based judgement.

At the same time that this is true, master artisans have always beeen recognized that
mastery in the making traditions requires more than physical skill and direct mastery
over materials. This is precisely the basis on which the traditions of the ancient
guilds distinguished between apprentice, journeyman, and master. The apprentice
learned to make things and work with materials. The journeyman was permitted (and
often required) to begin studying the guild secrets while traveling to perfect and
master physical skills and command of materials.

The highest levels of guild knowledge included intellectual issues and centuries of
guild lore. These were reserved for guild masters, and abstract intellectual mastery
and ability to command and represent these issues was required for advancement to
master status. Because some secrets were reserved to full masters, one level of
advanced study was required for promotion from journeyman to master, while other
levels of deeper and more advanced study were required of full masters as thyey
took on greater  responsibility for the preservation of the guild and its arts. Only a
master who mastered these arts and ranges of intellectual, abstract knowledge
could rise high in the guild structure and successfully manage the profitable
business of a studio.

The ancient guild masters would agree with you on prtinciple while disagreeing with
the notion that the intellect resides in the hands. The intellect is embodied. The
hands require the mind as much as the mind requires the body. The successful
practitioner also requires the traditions that guild culture provides, an extended mind
rendered accessible through abstract representation.

Terry and Lubomir have a point, much as you do. Without this larger realm of
knowledge and mental representaion, no practitioner can rise from apprenticeship
or journeyman status to mastery. It is on the level of mastery that we speak of
"design."  This is the difference between a skilled journeyman carpenter who can
work and build at the highest level -- what we would today call a master carpenter --
and the true master builder who knows the way to shape a house and understands
why some things work and others don't.

As the new owner of an improperly preserved old house that we must restore, I find
myself continually astonished to learn how the master builders we consult look at
what must be done. And I find myself continually interested in discovering that these
masters learn and advance their mastery in a modern version of the old tradition.
Today, this means advanced study in materials and current building research, often
including course work or degree work at leading technical and science universities.

The genuine emotional issue involved in your father's choices is a separate question
that demands respect. This is a different question than the question of what sorts of
skills designers require if they are to master design beyond the journeyman level of
mastering materials and physical skills. On this issue, you and Terry and Lubomir
ought to be joining in dialogue.

At least you should if you would like to drive on safe roads, ride safe railroads and
airlines, live in sustainable houses, use the phone and the internet secure in the
sense that it will work every time with increasingly fewer systemic problems, and so
on.

The challenge of a world increasingly created through artifice and design is a higher
level and far different order of intellectual skill and social responsibility than we have
earlier required.

This requires the embodied mind -- and it requires that the mind be able to use the
intellect as well the hands.

For my part, I agree with all three of you together.

Best regards,

Ken


On Fri, 25 Feb 2005 17:40:54 +0000, Fiona Jane Candy <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

(1)

>Like Peter Walters I also strongly disagree with the way you suggest
>that the intellect resides some where other than in the hands.

(2)

>Our minds are in our bodies- not in a box on the top.