Poetics and Aristotle

(Greek philosopher 384-322 B.C.)

 Aristotle was born in Stagirus, Macedonia, Greece in 384 BC and died at age 62 in 322 BC. He was a student at Plato's Academy and later became one of the greatest philosophers of Ancient Greece. He is one of the fathers of Western Philosophy and  wrote over 400 books on nearly everything from mollusks to immortal souls. He believed there was something wonderful about the whole of the natural world.

In one of his treatises, The Poetics, he outlines the Six Elements Of Drama, based on the Ancient Greek belief that tragedy was the highest form of Drama. This outline has become a guideline for many playwrights throughout history, and is especially emphasized in the works of William Shakespeare.

Aristotle’s Definition of Tragedy

“A tragedy is the imitation of an action that is serious and also, as having
magnitude, complete in itself; in appropriate and pleasurable language;...
in a dramatic rather than narrative form; with incidents arousing pity and fear,
wherewith to accomplish a catharsis of these emotions.”  

Catharsis being a purging of the emotions primarily through art that brings about spiritual renewal or release from tension or an elimination of a complex by bringing it to consciousness and affording it expression.

A type of emotional orgasm

Aristotle’s Six Elements of Drama

1. PLOT – what happens in a play; the order of events, the story as opposed to the theme; what happens rather than what it means. Inventing and arranging the events that would lead to the conclusion, the manner in which the story was told.
2. THEME – what the play means as opposed to what happens (plot); the main idea within the play.
3. CHARACTER – the personality or the part an actor represents in a play; a role played by an actor in a play.
4. DICTION/LANGUAGE/DIALOGUE – the word choices made by the playwright and the enunciation of the actors delivering the lines.
5. MUSIC/RHYTHM – by music Aristotle meant the sound, rhythm and melody of the speeches.
6. SPECTACLE – the visual elements of the production of a play; the scenery, costumes, and special effects in a production.

4 kinds of tragedy:

Complex

Pathetic

Ethical

Simple

Epics: "The Iliad is at once simple and 'pathetic,' and the Odyssey complex (for recognition scenes run through it), and at the same time 'ethical.'

Matt Barton's 'Treatise on Videogames', in which he applies Aristotle's Poetics to (among others) Space Invaders. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1jZaIPeD5w&ab_channel=316whatupz

For some history on Space Invaders: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Invaders

He writes: "Like tragedies in Aristotle's time, Space Invaders' story is obvious and irrelevant. We also know how the story must end--eventually, the player will be destroyed. The 'fun' of this videogame is not the story, but rather the gameplay. In the case of Space Invaders and other tragic games, the player's satisfaction arises not from the literary contemplation of a story, but the measurement of his gameplay skill as represented by the score."

Matt thinks Space Invaders is tragic, and - as he later points out - even cathartic. But is it really? And why do we keep playing it if it clears our souls of eleos (mercy, pity, compassion) and phobos (fear)?

For more information on Aristotle: https://plato.stanford.edu/search/searcher.py?query=aristotle

Aristotle invented deductive logic:

Premise: All frogs can swim
Premise: This is a frog
Conclusion: Therefore, it can swim

Similar logical structures or syllogisms can be produced with: No frogs” and “Some frogs”
He is known for induction: These frogs can swim, therefore all frogs can swim.
His teleological (circular) approach relies on methodological, cautious tendencies which rely only on what one knows from what ones’ 5 senses tell them.  (This is in opposition to Platonic tendencies which strive to seek hidden, unrealized (forms) and ultimate mystical truths through the use of reason.)