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ARISTOTLE (384 B.C)

" Aristotle's Poetics"

Aristotle was born in Macedonia which has now broken away from Yugoslavia. Aristotle was not the jack of all trades but the master of all trades. He was an encyclopedist. He wrote books one every branch of learning. He wrote books on animals. He discussed different stages that animals pass through. He also discussed the psychological system of animals. He wrote books on every branch of philosophy. He wrote books on ethics, politics, and psychology. He also wrote books on art and poetry and rhetoric. For many years these books were considered the last word. He was accepted not only by the Greeks but also by the Muslims as master in every branch of learning.
When Alexander the Great was going out on his mission of conquests, he went to Aristotle and said what he should bring for him.Aristotle said that whenever you find any new plant or animal or new stone, send that to me which you have not seen in Greece.Alexander did that

(ARISTOTLE'S POETICS)

Aristotle established the first Zoo,Museum and Botanical garden in the world. He was a scientific philosopher unlike Plato who was an idealist. In his book "Politics",he has Clearly expounded his political views. Similarly in his book Logic,he has expounded introduction and deduction thoroughly.One whole book is on the fallacies of Philosophers-fallacies which they commit in expounded their theories. He also wrote poetics, but unfortunately this book has come down to us In a very unsatisfactory form. It is very sketchy. He has raised some important issues but has left them unelaborated. He has left some very important words unexplained (e.g Nemesis, Hamartia). Perhaps the most important is "Catharsis".This is the most important word of the book. He talks of it as the effect of tragedy and leaves it at that. So why is "Poetics" so sketchy and unsatisfactory?
1)
There are two views regarding this question. One is that this is not a book but lecture notes. Aristotle had an academy where many students used to come and they were taught there. Perhaps these students made notes from the lectures he delivered. But he did explain the minor points. Why did not he explain the major points.
2)
The other view is that these are the notes of his students.this book is not written by Aristotle, but a note book by his students. He had a vast garden stretching over hundred of acres. He had a habit of that every morning he would walk and delivered his lectures on every branch of learning. The students tried to follow his lectures without saying a word. Since he was walking fast, therefore his students could not follow him fully. So this book is not written by Aristotle himself but it is the collection of notes by his students. Some even think that there is another part of this book .poetics has lots of problems for us .There are two main problems.

1) The one is to understand what he meant by certain words. For this we have to turn to all his books to understand Poetics. There is some general outlook and unity of thought behind all his books. We have to turn to politics and other books in order to be able to throw light on poetics.

2). The second problem is more serious,which has led to a great deal of misinterpretation when a word is left unexplained, everyone interprets it in his own way. Aristotle was accepted as Quran was accepted by Muslims and the Bible book accepted by Christians. Large number of commentaries were written on the Quran. So large number of books were written on Aristotle and Poetics. It is different for us to get out of his jungle- misinterpretations and contradictions, we get confused.
"POETICS"
In order to understand Aristotle's book, poetics, we have to have a general knowledge of his general philosophy. Then he has left some very important words and terms unexplained, so we have to refer to his other books.

"General philosophy of Aristotle"

Aristotle believes that the seed for all that human beings had developed already existed in human nature. If it had not been there, man would not be able to develop any institution. Everything created by man was the demand of his nature.
1)
Man lives in society and raises family because man by nature is a social animal. If the social instinct was not there in human nature, then man would have not lived in society.
2)
Man has created different forms of governments.He lives under many political systems. This is because man by nature is a political animal..
3)
Man has created religions and gods because man is by nature a worshipping animal.If This instinct was not there in man, there would have been no god and religion .Bible says that god created man in his own image. Aristotle does not agree to this. He says, no ,man created god in his own image because man by nature is a worshipping animal.
4)
Similarly man has created different forms of art because man is the most imitative of all animals and so he has created art and poetry. These institutions are there because there is something in human nature which not only makes them neccesory but inevitable .so this is the first assumption of Aristotle's outlook.............................................................