‘실천적 지식’의 두 가지 유형에 관한 고찰

An anlysis on two kinds of “Practical knowledge”: “techne” and “phronesis”

The purpose of this study is to clarify the ambiguity inherent in the concept of the "practical knowledge". The concept of "competence" which is the recent representative of the practical knowledge, has an ambiguity. It is considered as an job-specific competence as well as a more universal capacity containing intellectual and social meaning regarding one's job. In order to get rid of this ambiguity, this study investigates on the Aristotelian concepts of practical knowledge, that is, "techne" and "phronesis". Techne is a skill or competence for "making a product", while phronesis is a practical knowledge for "doing well" as a citizen in a polis. According to the "parallel model", since techne and phronesis is applied in the separate domain, there is no possibility of interaction or fusion between two kinds of knowledge. On the other hand, the "fusion model", focusing on the "dependency" of techne, and trying to overcome it, makes it important the acqusition of phronesis. According to "fusion model", phronesis is acquired by learning knowledge regarding "the good of community". The learning process of phronesis is exemplied by the "Socratic method". Refecting on the particularities of life in the light of the universals of "the good of community", the Socratic method leads us to acquire the competence of phronesis. The dependency of techne is overcome by learning phronesis, since it permits us apply any techne properly. The "fusion model" is the alternative of the "parallel model" in teaching practical knowledge.