ALL men by nature desire to know. The reason is that this, most of all the senses, makes us know and brings to light many differences between things. Human beings are capable of forming general concepts by abstraction from the memories of similar things formerly perceived. Thus, from the memories of several dogs that one has percieved in the past, a human can form a general impression of , or experience with, the species of dogs, which represents all members of that species in common.
Art is the capacity to form universal judgments that cover all cases of a certain type or class.
Note that this presupposes the ability to form general concepts already considered. Such universal judgments comprise knowledge of the principle behind a certain phenomenon, which goes beyond the simple familiarity provided by experience. Now art arises when from many notions gained by experience one universal judgement about a class of objects is produced. With a view to action experience seems in no respect inferior to art, and men of experience succeed even better than those who have theory without experience. A theoretical understanding of principle does not often serve the aims of practical action as much as simple familiarity gained by experience.