If I'm remembering correctly, Aristotle claims that the architectonic
science is politics, so it may be that Sidney is making the humanist retort
that poetry is prior to politics (both temporally and logically; poets
first drew people together by playing on their emotions, and politics
generally depends on the inspiration of poetry).
On Thu, Jul 18, 2013 at 7:54 PM, David Miller <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I'm writing to ask whether anyone knows of a precedent for Sidney's gloss
> on 'architectonike' as self-knowledge.
>
> It looks like he's putting together two classical passages: Aristotle on
> the master-science, which he compares to architecture because other forms
> of *techne* are controlled by it as workmen are controlled by the
> architect; and Plato on the Delphic oracle's "know thyself."
>
> What I'm wondering--if this interpretation passes muster--is whether
> Sidney is making this leap himself, or repeating something fairly
> commonplace. It doesn't look to me as if Aristotle's 'architectonike' is
> really about self-knowledge in Aristotle; and Sidney's way of glossing the
> term ("which stands as I think, in the knowledge of a man's self") seems to
> imply that he's the one drawing this conclusion.
>
> --
> David Lee Miller
> University of South Carolina
> Columbia, SC 29208
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