RosettaStone: CRAFT A primary, secondary, and annotated source reader for functional craft. By: Randi O'Brien

This is an annotated evaluation of the following:
The Language and Practical Philosophy of Craft By: Peter Dormer
 Peter Dormer, “The Language and Practical Philosophy of Craft” in The Culture of Craft: Status and Future, ed. Peter Dormer, 219-230 (New York: Manchester University Press, 1997)

The dichotomy of craft as philosophy and craft as a discipline is the principle motivator for critical questioning within Peter Dormers article. The use of rules within a discipline; as Dormer provides metaphor through the use “a medical school that allowed its students to discover for themselves, by trial and error and without the benefit of existing hard-won knowledge, the disciplines of even a minor surgery would soon come to be criticized by the public”, is necessary. However the philosophy of creativity and “learning through self discovery” is critical to the duality of craft.

Yet, through this understanding there is a balance between philosophy and discipline that craftsmen should “be committed to practicing their craft honestly as a disciplined work strenuously to clarify their goals and seek out the rules, not only of making, but also of procedure, that will keep them sticking to the point.” Honest craftsmanship should not be founded in “disguising inadequacies” of construction, but in maintaining the integrity and in a standard that cannot be cheated.

Dormer further states that through recognition of honest craftsmanship different senses of rightness should be evaluated, specifically “concerns [of] fitness for function” and a combination of “aesthetics and function”. However through this evaluation, concerns of connoisseurship and the tacit knowledge that entitles nuances within the crafts often “leads to clashes and incomprehension” in the public life. Dormer empathizes with the connoisseur who works to enlighten public understanding, however address that “part of the search for the integrity of a practice is clarifying the nature of the context.”

Personal Conclusion and Evaluation

Peter Dormer’s article is laced with metaphorical and actual comparisons of craftsmen and connoisseurs whom set standards of integrity or whom overlook the bounds of the context a craft object is set. It is an easy 12 page read that puts into perspective the duality of philosophy and discipline, of aesthetics and function, and of connoisseurship and context.