460.03 aristotle poiesis, exemplars, catharsis

POIESIS AND EXEMPLARSAristotle on Models and Excellence

Michelangelo, David

Dürer, Melancholia

Michelangelo, Pieta

Donatello, Magdalene

CAUSALITY

Cause means (1) that from which, as immanent material, a thing comes into being, e.g. the bronze is the cause of the statue and the silver of the saucer, and so are the classes which include these. (2) The form or pattern, i.e. the definition of the essence, and the classes which include this (e.g. the ratio 2:1 and number in general are causes of the octave), and the parts included in the definition. (3) That from which the change or the resting from change first begins; e.g. the adviser is a cause of the action, and the father a cause of the child, and in general the maker a cause of the thing made and the change-producing of the changing. (4) The end, i.e. that for the sake of which a thing is; e.g. health is the cause of walking. For 'Why does one walk?' we say; 'that one may be healthy'; and in speaking thus we think we have given the cause.

—Aristotle, Metaphysics

CAUSALITY

illusions

ordinarythings

forms

The Forms

Plato’s Simile of the Line

CAUSALITY

CAUSALITY

MaterialFormal

Efficient Final

Aristotle’s Four Causes

POIESIS

“It follows that an art is the same thing as a rational quality, concerned with making, that reasons truly. All Art deals with bringing some thing into existence; and to pursue an art means to study how to bring into existence a thing which may either exist or not, and the efficient cause of which lies in the maker and not in the thing made….”

—Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics

MaterialFormal

artist Art

POIESIS

It is clear, then, from what we have said that the poet must be a "maker" not of verses but of stories, since he is a poet in virtue of his "representation," and what he represents is action. Even supposing he represents what has actually happened, he is none the less a poet, for there is nothing to prevent some actual occurrences being the sort of thing that would probably or inevitably happen, and it is in virtue of that that he is their “maker."

—Aristotle, Poetics

Parthenon Metope, Centaurs and Lapiths

IMITATION

Speaking generally, poetry seems to owe its origin to two particular causes, both natural. From childhood men have an instinct for representation, and in this respect, differs from the other animals that he is far more imitative and learns his first lessons by representing things. —Aristotle, Poetics Polykleitos,

Doryphorus

IMITATION

…if a man smeared a canvas with the loveliest colors at random, it would not give as much pleasure as an outline in black and white.1 And it is mainly because a play is a representation of action that it also for that reason represents people.—Aristotle, Poetics Polygnous,

Iliupersis

IMITATION

And then there is the enjoyment people always get from representations. What happens in actual experience proves this, for we enjoy looking at accurate likenesses of things which are themselves painful to see, obscene beasts, for instance, and corpses. The reason is this: Learning things gives great pleasure not only to philosophers but also in the same way to all other men —Aristotle, Poetics Laocoön

CATEGORIES

PropertiesSubstantial Accidental

General

Specific

CATEGORIES

ThingBiota

AnimalVertebrateMammalPrimate

HomonidaeHomo

SapiensSapiens

ThingBiota


HomonidaeHomo

SapiensSapiens


General

Specific

ThingBiota


HomonidaeHomo

SapiensSapiens

ThingBiota


HomonidaeHomo

SapiensSapiens


General Wearing

clothes

Specific Essence

Wearing a dress

CATEGORIES


General Human Being Male

Specific

Being a Warrior

Being a PoetBeing a RulerBeing David

Having used a sling

Having slain Goliath

CATEGORIES

Properties

Substantial

Accidental

General

HumanBeing

Male

Specific

Being a Warrior

Being a Poet

Being a RulerBeing David

Having used a sling

Having slain

Goliath

CATEGORIES

…poetry is something more scientific and serious than history, because poetry tends to give general truths while history gives particular facts.

By a "general truth" I mean the sort of thing that a certain type of man will do or say either probably or necessarily.



General Wearing

clothes

Specific

Wearing a dress

ThingBiota


HomonidaeHomo

SapiensSapiens

ThingBiota


HomonidaeHomo

SapiensSapiens

CATEGORIES

being Diotima

portrayal

Depiction {

{

Properties

Substantial

Accidental

General

HumanBeing

Male

Specific

Being a Warrior

Being a Poet


Having used a sling

Having slain

Goliath

CATEGORIES

Depiction is a representation of an exemplary specimen (not any particular individual) that fuses essential traits, including functions, from various individuals.

Portrayal, a representation of a specific individual by virtue of mimicking unique (or essential) properties.

portrayal

Depiction

{

{ being David

Properties

Substantial

Accidental

General

HumanBeing

Male

Specific

Being a Warrior

Being a Poet


Having used a sling

Having slain

Goliath

CATEGORIESWhat we have said already makes it further clear that a poet's object is not to tell what actually happened but what could and would happen either probably or inevitably. The difference between a historian and a poet is not that one writes in prose and the other in verse—indeed the writings of Herodotus could be put into verse and yet would still be a kind of history, whether written in metre or not. The real difference is this, that one tells what happened and the other what might happen.

—Aristotle Poeticsportrayal

Depiction

{

{ being David


General Wearing

clothes

Specific

Wearing a dress

ThingBiota


HomonidaeHomo

SapiensSapiens

ThingBiota


HomonidaeHomo

SapiensSapiens

CATEGORIES

Su

bsta

nce

Accid

e

nt

POIESIS

Substance

Accident

Accident

POIESIS

Exemplar

History

History…poetry is something more scientific and serious than history, because poetry tends to give general truths while history gives particular facts.

By a "general truth" I mean the sort of thing that a certain type of man will do or say either probably or necessarily.


POIESIS: ACTION

Tragedy is, then, a representation of an action that is heroic and complete and of a certain magnitude—by means of language enriched with all kinds of ornament, each used separately in the different parts of the play: it represents men in action and does not use narrative, and through pity and fear it effects relief to these and similar emotions.


Rising ActionReversal

Climax

Falling Action

Michelangelo, Creation

Parthenon Metope, Centaurs and Lapiths

POIESIS: CHARACTERSThe objects the imitator represents are actions, with agents who are necessarily either good men or bad—the diversities of human character being nearly always derivative from this primary distinction, since the line between virtue and vice is one dividing the whole of mankind. It follows, therefore, that the agents represented must be either above our own level of goodness, or beneath it, or just such as we are…. —Aristotle, Poetics

Massacchio, Expulsion from the Garden of Eden

POIESIS: CHARACTERS

In respect of Character there are four things to be aimed at. First, and most important, it must be good. Now any speech or action that manifests moral purpose of any kind will be expressive of character: the character will be good if the purpose is good.

Donatello, Penitent Magdalene

Lechares, Apollo Belvedere

Donatello, Habakuk

POIESIS: CHARACTERS

The second thing to aim at is propriety. There is a type of manly valor … unscrupulous cleverness is inappropriate.

Brunelleschi, Sacrificeof Isaac

POIESIS: CHARACTERS

The second thing to aim at is propriety. There is a type of manly valor … unscrupulous cleverness is inappropriate.

Ghiberti, Sacrificeof Isaac

Ghiberti, Sacrificeof Isaac

Brunelleschi, Sacrificeof Isaac

POIESIS: CHARACTERS

Thirdly, character must be true to life: for this is a distinct thing from goodness and propriety, as here described. The fourth point is consistency: for though the subject of the imitation, who suggested the type, be inconsistent, still he must be consistently inconsistent.

Drunken Satyr or Barberini Faun

POIESIS: CHARACTERS

Character is that which reveals choice, shows what sort of thing a man chooses or avoids in circumstances where the choice is not obvious, so those speeches convey no character in which there is nothing whatever which the speaker chooses or avoids.–Aristotle, Poetics

POIESIS: CHARACTERS

Clearly the story must be constructed as in tragedy, dramatically, round a single piece of action, whole and complete in itself, with a beginning, middle and end, so that like a single living organism it may produce its own peculiar form of pleasure.


Rising ActionReversal/Discovery

Climax

Falling Action

Michelangelo, David

Donatello, David

Donatello, David

Michelangelo, David

POIESIS: SIX PARTS OF TRAGEDY

Necessarily then every tragedy has six constituent parts, and on these its quality depends. These are plot, character, diction, thought, spectacle, and song

The most important of these is the arrangement of the incidents, for tragedy is not a representation of men but of a piece of action, of life, of happiness and unhappiness, which come under the head of action, and the end aimed at is the representation not of qualities of character but of some action; and while character makes men what they are, it's their actions and experiences that make them happy or the opposite.


POIESIS: PLOT

By "plot" I mean here the arrangement of the incidents: “character”….

All human happiness or misery takes the form of action; the end for which we live is a certain kind of activity, not a quality.


Rising ActionReversal/Discovery

Climax

Falling Action

POIESIS: PLOTthe action (that which was done) is represented in the play by the Fable or Plot. —Aristotle, Poetics

MODERN TIMES

POIESIS: CHARACTERCharacter: that which determines the quality of the agents…Character gives us qualities, but it is in our actions—what we do—that we are happy or the reverse…Character in a play is that which reveals the moral purpose of the agents,

GLEN GARRY, GLEN ROSS

POIESIS: DICTIONDiction: the composition of the verses—Aristotle, Poetics

MY COUSIN VINNY

POIESIS: THOUGHTappears wherever in the dialogue they put forward an argument or deliver an opinion.—Aristotle, Poetics

THANKYOU FOR SMOKING

POIESIS: SPECTACLEthe stage-appearance of the actors—Aristotle, Poetics

IRON MAN

POIESIS: MELODY‘Melody’, what is too completely understood to require explanation.—Aristotle, Poetics

Charlie Chaplin/Chick Corea: Smile


Los Straightjackets: My Heart Will Go On


Moldy Peaches: Anyone Else But You

BEAUTYMoreover, in everything that is beautiful, whether it be a living creature or any organism composed of parts, these parts must not only be orderly arranged but must also have a certain magnitude of their own; for beauty consists in magnitude and ordered arrangement. From which it follows that neither would a very small creature be beautiful—for our view of it is almost instantaneous and therefore confused—nor a very large one, since being unable to view it all at once, we lose the effect of a single whole; for instance, suppose a creature a thousand miles long. As then creatures and other organic structures must have a certain magnitude and yet be easily taken in by the eye, so too with plots: they must have length but must be easily taken in by the memory. —Aristotle, Poetics

Picasso, Girl Before a Mirror

Botticelli, Venus

Boticelli, Venus

Poseidon (or Zeus)

POIESIS

Art: Good Guy Wins

History: Bad Guy Wins

History: Good Guy Loses

VIRTUES

Thus a master of any art avoids excess and defect, but seeks the intermediate and chooses this—the intermediate not in

the object but relatively to us. If it is thus, then, that every art does its work well—by looking to the intermediate and judging its works by this standard (so that we often say of good works

of art that it is not possible either to take away or to add anything, implying that excess and defect destroy the

goodness of works of art, while the mean preserves it; and good artists, as we say, look to this in their work), and if, further, virtue is more exact and better than any art, as

nature also is, then virtue must have the quality of aiming at the intermediate. I mean moral virtue; for it is this that is

concerned with passions and actions, and in these there is excess, defect, and the intermediate.

—Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics

VIRTUES

Vice

Vice

Virtue

Aristotle’s Virtue Theory

VIRTUES

Cowardice

Foolhardy

Courage

The Virtue of Courage

VIRTUES

insensibility

Self-Indulgence

Temperance


VIRTUES


Stinginess

Extravagance

Generosity

VIRTUES


Moral Exemplar/Depiction

Generic Virtues

Accidental Actualities

CATHARSIS

since tragedy represents not only a complete action but also incidents that cause fear and pity, and this happens most of all when the incidents are unexpected and yet one is a consequence of the other. For in that way the incidents will cause more amazement than if they happened mechanically and accidentally, since the most amazing accidental occurrences are those which seem to have been providential, for instance when the statue of Mitys at Argos killed the man who caused Mitys's death by falling on him at a festival. Such events do not seem to be mere accidents. So such plots as these must necessarily be the best.


CATHARSIS

A tragedy, then, is the imitation of an action that is serious and also, as having magnitude, complete in itself; in language with pleasurable accessories, each kind brought in separately in the parts of the work; in a dramatic, not in a narrative form; with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish its catharsis of such emotions.


Michelangelo, Pieta

Münch, Scream

Laocoön

Picasso, Guernica

HAMLET

GENERAL AND SPECIAL VIRTUES

A General Virtue

Resentment

Gullible

Forgiving

GENERAL AND SPECIAL VIRTUES

A Specific Virtue

Resentment

Gullible

Clemency

VIRTUES OF THE ARTIST

A Virtue Specific to Patrons and Artists

over the top

Mean

Magnificence

VIRTUES OF THE ARTIST

There are also other dispositions in relation to money, namely, the mode of observing the mean called Magnificence ... the excess called Tastelessness or Vulgarity, and the defect called Paltriness....

In respect of honor and dishonor, the observance of the mean is Greatness of Soul, the excess a sort of Vanity, as it may be called, and the deficiency, Smallness of Soul.

A Virtue Specific to Patrons and Artists

Taj Mahal

Statue of Liberty

Eiffel Tower

Forbidden City

Guggenheim Bilbao

Sidney Opera House

ML King Jr Memorial Waterfall

Houston Conwill, Estella Majoza and Joseph De Pace, Photo by Ariana McNulty

MAGNIFICENCE

The defect corresponding to the magnificent disposition is called Paltriness, and the excess Vulgarity, Want of Taste or the like. The latter vices do not exceed by spending too great an amount on proper objects, but by making a great display on the wrong occasions and in the wrong way. We will however speak of them later

The magnificent man is an artist in expenditure: he can discern what is suitable, and spend great sums with good taste.

–Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics IV.4-5

460.03 aristotle poiesis, exemplars, catharsis

Education

essential properties

sort of thing

men aristotle

causality cause

exemplars aristotle

cause of walking

efficient cause

representation of action