Aristotle - The Poetics - Value of His Criticism

 

Aristotle - The Poetics

Value of His Criticism 

While Plato’s approach to literature was that of a social reformer, Aristotle’s is that of a scientist. Plato wanted literature to do the works of morality; Aristotle expects it to be no more than what it is –an art. Aristotle clearly sees the distinctions between the two which Plato had failed to see. ‘The standard of correctness’, he says, ‘is not the same in poetry and politics, any more than in poetry and any other art’. While politics, which is a social science, is to be judged by the contribution it makes to social well-being, poetry is to be judged by its proper function- pleasure. To do this it has to make an appeal to the emotions, which is catharsis and not harmful in its effect as Plato believed. Aristotle discovers the principles by which literature can most effectively discharge this function: it has unity of action, which Plato stressed too, and propriety or decorum in all its parts-characters, thought, style and performance. In this way he judges literature by its own standards- the aesthetic. In tracing the origin and development of the three art forms, he shows himself a master of the historical method.

The fundamental thought of Aristotle’s philosophy is Becoming not Being and Becoming to him meant not an appearing and a vanishing away. The concrete individual thing is not a shadowy appearance but the primary reality. The outward world and material world, the diverse manifestations of nature’s life, organic and inorganic, the processes of birth and decay, the manifold forms of sensuous beauty, all gained a new importance of his philosophy. Physical science, slighted by Plato was passionately studied by Aristotle. The work of art was not a semblance opposed to reality, but the image of a reality, through which the idea shows more apparent than in the actual world. Aristotle saw in fine art a rational faculty. The illustrations which fine art employs do not cheat the mind; they image forth the idea which cannot find adequate expression under the forms of material existence.