Artes Mechanicae, Episode 5: Excogitatio as the first act of the mind
How do the mechanical arts—like bread-baking and woodworking—aid in the cultivation of wisdom?
In this episode, Austin Hoffman continues the series on the mechanical arts as articulated by Hugh of St. Victor, drawing heavily on Anya Burgon’s dissertation, The Mechanical Arts and Poiesis (2018). Building on earlier contrasts between the liberal and mechanical arts, Hoffman explores John Scotus Eriugena’s deliberate pairing of the two and Burgon’s provocative claim that the mechanical arts “gloss” the process by which wisdom is realized. Central to the discussion is the way learned, practical skills parallel eloquence and rhetoric in cultivating the mind, imagination, and judgment essential to wisdom.
The episode turns to the conceptual distinction between cogitare and excogitatio, drawing on David Summers’ The Judgment of Sense. This distinction illuminates invention, imagination, and the gathering of experience into meaningful universals—the first activity of the mind and the foundation of rhetoric and wisdom. Hoffman shows how Eriugena’s use of excogitatio to describe the mechanical arts frames them as deliberate acts of imitation, selection, and making, thereby mirroring the intellectual processes fostered by the liberal arts. Far from being merely utilitarian, the mechanical arts train habits of attention, discernment, and judgment that are indispensable to education.
Through concrete examples—bread-baking, teaching, and woodworking—Hoffman demonstrates how working at a human pace, embracing failure, and using the right tools for the right kind of work cultivate prudence and care. These illustrations are applied directly to the classroom, challenging classical educators to consider their pedagogical “tools,” pacing, and assumptions about efficiency. The episode closes by inviting educators to recover the mechanical arts as essential partners to the liberal arts in forming wise teachers and students, setting the stage for a forthcoming discussion of poiesis in the ancient and medieval world.
Learn more about the Greystone Institute's Mechanical Arts Program here: www.greystoneinstitute.org