The Poetics of Aristotle

Aristotle

Ancient Greek philosopher, psychologist, moralist, scientist, metaphysician, and pioneer of formal logic, Aristotle was born in 384 BC in Stagira, Chalcidice, Northern Greece. He lost his parents in his childhood, and moved to Athens at the age of seventeen. There he enrolled in Plato’s Academy where he spent almost twenty years, first as a pupil and then as a teacher and writer. Of the dialogues he wrote, only fragments survive. Physics—a work on Western science and philosophy; Metaphysics—a book examining existence; Nicomachean Ethics—a book on Aristotelian ethics; Politics—a work of political philosophy; De Anima (On the Soul); and Poetics—a philosophical treatise on literary theory; are among his important treaties. Poetics is his first extant work of dramatic theory. It has been guiding playwrights for centuries now, and still continues to remain a powerful benchmark for literary evaluation. Poetics and Rhetoric are Aristotle’s remarkable contributions to literary criticism. He continues to remain a notable intellectual figure of Western history.