Aristotle: Poetics

A complete translation of Aristotle's classic that is both faithful and readable, along with an introduction that provides the modern reader with a means of understanding this seminal work and its impact on our culture. In this volume, Joe Sachs (translator of Aristotle's Physics, Metaphysics, and the Nicomachean Ethics )also supplements his excellent translation with well-chosen notes and glossary of important terms. Focus Philosophical Library translations are close to and are non-interpretative of the original text, with the notes and a glossary intending to provide the reader with some sense of the terms and the concepts as they were understood by Aristotle’s immediate audience.

Here is a new translation, remarkable for its accuracy and refreshing clarity of exposition, of the first major work of literary criticism.

Library Journal

This useful book, an extended study of the Poetics , treats such subjects as Aristotle's general aesthetic views; mimesis; pity, fear, and katharsis; recognition, reversal, and hamartia; tragic misfortune; the nontragic genres; and the historical influence of the work. Aristotle emerges as holding a deeply cognitivist view of poetry and as rejecting the attempt to judge art primarily by external (e.g., moral, political) criteria; his call for the relative autonomy of art, however, neither commits him to an aestheticist view nor prevents him from attributing to art a significant moral dimension. Halliwell's attempts to keep Plato in close view and to keep the Poetics within the context of Aristotle's philosophy as a whole are illuminating. For academic collections. Richard Hogan, Philosophy Dept., Southeastern Massachusetts Univ., N. Dartmouth

PHILOSOPHY / History & Surveys/Ancient & Classical Cover 1 The Focus Philosophical Library 4 Title page 5 Copyright 6 Contents 7 Introduction 9 Experiencing and Thinking 9 Imitation 10 Stories 11 Fear and Pity 13 A Fatal Flaw 15 Katharsis 18 Wonder 21 Poetics 27 Chapter 1 27 Chapter 2 29 Chapter 3 29 Chapter 4 30 Chapter 5 33 Chapter 6 34 Chapter 7 37 Chapter 8 39 Chapter 9 40 Chapter 10 42 Chapter 11 42 Chapter 12 44 Chapter 13 44 Chapter 14 46 Chapter 15 49 Chapter 16 51 Chapter 17 53 Chapter 18 54 Chapter 19 56 Chapter 20 58 Chapter 21 60 Chapter 22 62 Chapter 23 65 Chapter 24 66 Chapter 25 69 Chapter 26 74 Glossary of Names 77 Glossary of Some Important Greek Words 80 Back Cover 84 One of the first books written on what is now called aesthetics. Although parts are lost (e.g., comedy), it has been very influential in western thought, such as the part on tragedy.