ABSTRACT
Whether or not we classify any of Aristotle’s writings as aesthetics proper, he did produce the first extended philosophical studies of an art form. Most of his works on poetry have long disappeared, leaving the Poetics as our only souvenir of his theory of art. So that work has enjoyed an unmatched cultural influence, as writers followed Aristotle’s rules for composing poetry, and critics followed his rules for evaluating those writers. Even when both sides distorted the Poetics, they learned from its principles, and our idea of art owes that little book a great debt. Within the history of philosophy, the Poetics is noteworthy as a reply to Plato’s
condemnation of poetry. It makes a textbook case of Aristotle’s anti-Platonism: while sharing some assumptions with Plato, Aristotle finds points at which to oppose him, and builds those points into a decisively new theory. This article will focus on the anti-Platonic argument, for at many turns in the Poetics we best understand what Aristotle asserts only after determining which Platonic position he means to deny. The value of the Poetics goes beyond its historical significance. It is instructive to
watch Aristotle pause from his argument and ruminate on why poetry exists or how it works. He moves from criticism to theory and back. He writes as a philosopher and as a fan. Above all, Aristotle lets actual dramas teach him about drama. His unhurried dissections of tragedy are one more manifestation of his biologist’s observant mind, and show how useful such a mind is for the study of art.
