Mythos and Tragedy: A Study in Aristotelian Aesthetics

Abstract

Despite the overmentioned influence of Aristotle and the multitude of interpretations of Aristotle from the Hellenistic times to the interpretation of W. Jaeger and ewn to the more recent interpretations, a careful and unprejudiced (to the possible extent) examination of the arguments of Aristotle would persuade us that Aristotle is one of the least understood and probably most misunderstood philosophers. Piatonist and anti-platonist, realistic and idealistic, common sense and philosophical, charges or .praises have been made for and against Aristotle. What the author of this short essay believes is that one should study the Aristotelian arguments in Aristotle's own terms without imposing his own terms and prejudices on them, and what he proposes to do is to give an example of such a study, in analyzing the third part of the sixth chapter of the Poetics.