Artificial viscosity is used in the computer simulation of high Reynolds number flows and is one of the oldest numerical artifices. In this paper, I will describe the origin and the interpretation of artificial viscosity as a physical phenomenon. The basis of this interpretation is the finite scale theory, which describes the evolution of integral averages of the fluid solution over finite (length) scales. I will outline the derivation of finite scale Navier–Stokes equations and highlight the particular properties of the equations that depend on the finite scales. Those properties include enslavement, inviscid dissipation, and a law concerning the partition of total flux of conserved quantities into advective and diffusive components.