Re:The Difference Between Art and Craft - techne (Score 1)

I agree with other posters in being troubled by equating art with originality. Think of Shakespeare! He wasn't original in the way we think of it-- almost all of his stories and plots were taken from other sources; his 'originality' is in the craft of language and how he put those stories together.

There are some greek words that seem pertinent to this discussion. The greek word techne is the root of our word technology, and it means skill, art, or craft-- any of them! there is an 'art' to sailing, or any other kind of craft that we, now, would think of more as a skill. In addition, our words for poet and poem derive from a Greek verb which means to do or make. The poet is a maker; a poem is a creation. So the ideas of art and craft are historically a lot more connected than we realize.