These passages from Aristotle fall into two groups; the first three address topics related to the character of art (i.e., techne—and remember that this includes things like the art of medicine and the art of building) and the remainder address the associated judgments of quality.

• Art comes up in the first group of passages primarily as something Aristotle compares to or contrasts with nature, which is his chief interest (the Greek term for nature is physis, which is related to the title of the Physics). So we will often ignore Aristotle’s main points to focus on remarks he makes along the way and you should watch for even incidental comments Aristotle makes about art.

• From Metaphysics, xii.3 (HK 80-1). As is often the case with Aristotle, this short passage raises a number of important issues (and presents a number of problems of interpretation), but the key idea here for our purposes is the distinction between form and matter.

• From Physics, ii.8-9 (HK 86-90). Here Aristotle is arguing for the importance of ends or purposes in explanations of natural phenomena. In the course of this, he makes a number of comparisons with art and you should watch for what he says about ends in artistic production as well as for the connection he makes between form and end.

• From Metaphysics, vii.7 (HK 90-2). The key thing to notice in this passage is Aristotle’s account of the process of production by art, what is called here “making.” (The term translated in this passage as “making” is related to the term poiesis and could be translated as “production”; “production” is used in this passage to translate another term.)

• In the passages concerning judgments of excellence generally and of beauty specifically, watch for both the role of the concept of a mean and for ties to the idea of an end or purpose. It’s worth noting that the Greek term translated here as “beautiful” (kalos) was somewhat broader than our word and in some uses could be translated as “fine,” “noble,” or even “good.”

• From Nicomachean Ethics, ii.6 and i.1-2 (HK 93-5). Here watch for both the role of the concept of a mean and for ties to the idea of an end or purpose. You can take the selection from bk. i to be an explanation of an idea employed in the selection from bk. ii, that of something “doing its work well.”

• From Rhetoric i.5 (HK 96). This passage forms part of a discussion of “bodily excellence.” It is preceded by a discussion of health and followed by one of strength. All are components of “happiness” (when this is understood as a translation of the Greek eudaimonia, which is sometimes also translated as “human flourishing”). Try to think of Aristotle’s discussion here in terms of the ideas appearing in the passages from the Nicomachean Ethics.

• From Metaphysics xiii. 3 (HK 96). This passage is a passing remark in a discussion of mathematics. It constitutes a natural account of beauty but how well does it fit with evaluation in terms of ends and purposes?

Aristotle’s account of art and its excellence can seem like good common sense (to us as well as to the ancient Greeks) if it is applied to “art” in the broad sense of techne. But how well does it apply to “art” in the narrow sense of the fine arts? Think about this concerning both what Aristotle says about artistic production and what he says about its excellence.

Here are some of the questions you might ask:

• Should art be identified with form? What about the medium—is that a mere means (though perhaps a necessary one)?

• Is beauty determined by purpose, by serving an end? What about the “order, symmetry, and definiteness” Aristotle speaks about in Metaphysics xiii.3?

• More generally, are the fine arts distinguished from arts in the broader sense (not merely applied or decorative arts but engineering and the like) only by the specific nature of their end? If not, what other differences are there?