. . . the crafts Plato most frequently used are ones that have objects on which they work, on which they carry out their function. The objects can be either animate or inanimate. This distinction among objects allows a distinction among crafts and their functions and goals. When objects are inanimate, the function of the craft is to produce ten and its goal is a separate material object. When the objects are animate, the function of the craft is not to produce them but to improve or perfect them; the goal, then, is the improved state of the object. . . . In the early dialogues, Plato tends to use craft (techne) interchangeably with knowledge (episteme). The interchangeability implies that craft, like all knowledge, reliably produces results. Moreover, knowledge in the context of craft does not mean just knowing how to accomplish the goal of the craft, but includes a theoretical component as well. In the Apology (22d), craftsmen are said to know what they do because they can explain their craft; presumably they can explain why they do what they do. In the Gorgias (465a; 501a), Socrates says that craft can give a rational account of the nature of what it prescribes.
– Richard D. Parry (1995)
