摘要：Aristotle, Metapqysics 98 I b 13-25, reads as foUows: "At first he who invented any art or technique whatever which went beyond the common and ordinary perception ofman was naturaUy admired by men, and this not only because there was something useful in these inventions, but also because he was thought to be wise as weH as superior to the rest. However, as more and more arts were invented, and some of these arts were concerned with the necessities of life, others with recreation (or pleasure), the inventors of the latter were naturaHy regarded as being wiser than the inventors of the former, because their branches of knowledge did not aim at utility. Hence, when all such inventions [namely, those inventions which did cope with the necessities of life or survival and those which were concerned with pleasure or leisure] had been made, the sciences which are not concerned with giving pleasure or with providing the nesessities oE life, were discovered, and this first in those places where man first began to have leisure [because he had succeeded in solving the problems of survival and subsequently had attained astate of technological efficiency]. This is the reason why the mathematical (or liberal) arts were started in Egypt. For there the priestly cast was in a position to enjoy leisure."l)
