Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to
Aristotle and the Poetics
Angela
Curran
Contents
Acknowledgements
Preface
Aristotle’s life
2 Grounding principles and concepts
Preliminaries
18
18
of poetry
Art or technē
Mimēsis as fiction
Mimēsis as “as if” experiences
The completion account of mimēsis
22
32
34
36
37
39
41
viii
CONTENTS
3 Differentiating the imitative arts
Poetics 1: the media of mimēsis
Poetics 2: the objects of mimēsis
Poetics 3: the mode of imitation, narrative or dramatic
The bigger picture: media, objects, and modes
Poetics 4: the two causes of poetry
The two streams of poetry
Conclusion
46
46
52
54
62
63
65
68
4 The pleasures in imitations
The origins of imitation in human nature
The pleasures in the experience of a work of imitative art
Pleasure in imitations as pleasure in learning
The debate around “understand and infer” in Poetics 4
Mimetic art as a knowledge-seeking activity
From recognition to fresh understanding
Conclusion: the pleasure in imitation as imitation
73
73
75
80
85
90
95
98
5 Tragedy def ined
Introduction: historical origins and philosophical
interest
Poetics 6: defining tragedy
Serious or admirable action
Completeness and magnitude
Embellished language and dramatic mode
Unified action: the necessary or likely
connection between events
Chance, the irrational, and “outside the drama”
The Poetics and the gods
Objections and replies
Conclusion
6 The six elements of poetic composition
Focus on the plot
The six qualitative elements of tragedy
Aristotle on the possibility of a characterless tragedy
Conclusion
104
104
106
108
110
114
115
118
123
124
127
132
132
133
138
147
CONTENTS
7 Philosophy, poetry, and knowledge
Ancient and contemporary debates about art
and knowledge
Aristotle and the debate about art and knowledge
A brief primer on Aristotle’s theory of knowledge
From poetic unity to poetic universals
Poetry deals with the possible
Poetry “speaks of” the universal
Poetry as a form of knowledge
Objections and an alternative interpretation
Conclusion
151
155
156
158
159
162
166
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177
8 The tragic emotions, plot elements, and patterns
Introduction
Aristotle’s account of the emotions
Pity and fear in the Poetics and the Rhetoric
Simple and complex plots: reversal, recognition, and pathos
Hamartia or tragic error
Poetics 13: the best tragic plots
Poetics 14: acting in ignorance with a fortunate outcome
Reconciling Poetics 13 and Poetics 14
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183
184
186
189
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209
9 Catharsis
Introduction: the problem of interpretation
Catharsis: root meanings
A brief overview of catharsis interpretation
Catharsis as purgation
Catharsis as ethical education
Catharsis as clarification
Catharsis: a revised purgation account
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214
216
218
219
222
223
229
10 Comedy and epic
Introduction: the final chapters of the Poetics
Comedy: evolution, structure, and comedic imitation
Plato’s views on comedy
Comedy’s role in a human life: two contrasting
151
236
236
237
239
ix
readings of the Poetics
x
242
CONTENTS
The proper pleasure of comedy
Epic’s proper focus on unified action
Differences between epic and tragedy
Epic pleasure, the irrational, and deception
The proper pleasure of epic
Poetics 25: the right way to be a critic of poetry
Poetics 26: tragedy as superior to epic
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252
254
255
256
258
263
11 The distinctive pleasure of tragedy
The proper pleasure of tragedy: some preliminaries
Pleasure in one’s virtuous response to tragedy
The merry-go-round account
Cognitive pleasure as the proper pleasure
of tragedy
Proper pleasure in tragedy as emotional understanding
Getting to emotional understanding: from
sympathy to empathy
Returning to the paradox of tragic pleasure
Conclusion
269
269
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275
12 The Poetics and contemporary aesthetics
Introduction: the Poetics today
The paradox of fiction
The paradox of tragedy
Film cognitivism and the Poetics
Empathy, sympathy, and simulation
The Poetics and cognitivism in the arts
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296
297
300
303
305
308
13 Conclusion
Introduction
The Poetics and Plato’s criticism of the arts
Aristotle’s disagreements with Plato
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313
313
317
279
283
285
289
291
Glossary
Index
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330