Philological, Art-philosophical Stuty of Aristotle's Poetics

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The aim of this research project was to interpret Aristotle's Poetics as a consistant argument and thereby to assign art a due place within his philosophical system.First, emphasis was laid upon causality which dominates poetry and distinguishes it from reality. Based on the comparison of poetry with history which Aristotle makes in Chapter 9 of the Poetics, attempt was made to make clear the difference between the causality at work in reality and that in poetry.As the result, we reached the following conclusion through a consideration of hamartia in Chapter 13. The tragic hero, according to Aristotle, ruins himself through his hamartia but not as a due punishment, in contrast to a rascal. This seeming contradiction between both factors originates in the essential limitation of human beings in foreseeing the result of what we do or say. For we, being unable to know at the moment of doing something whether the action in question is right or wrong, know it only when the result is clear. On the other hand, we are accused of being wrong, if something bad ensues from our action. This depends upon our capability of following the links retrospectively from the result. In this sense, we must be able to foresee the future. That is what the seeming contradiction implies.Tragedy offers a setting in which causal relationships of the given factors are clear. Tragedy, and, by extension, Art in general functions as a model by which or a prism through which to view the real world.The next emphasis was on katharsis. A reconsideration of this concept from an ontological viewpoint corroborated the reading την των τοιουτων μαθηματων καθαρσιν.