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The document also connects poetic theory to ethics and logic and illustrates plot via the summary of Oedipus Tyrannus, concluding with Aristotle’s classification of simple and compound plots.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/literature/","Literature",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/aristotles-poetics-brief-notes/318072/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/aristotles-poetics-brief-notes/318072.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"Lucas Martin","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-02","2026-09-20",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",19,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"What is the central principle of Aristotle’s Poetics described in these notes?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"Poetry is a mimesis, an imitation. In particular, tragedy imitates an action, and this imitation (not metric discourse) is what makes something a poem.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"How do the notes explain the definition of tragedy?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"Tragedy is an imitation of a serious, complete action of certain magnitude, presented in embellished language through enactment. It works through pity and fear to achieve the proper purgation of these emotions.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"What does Aristotle consider the most essential element of tragedy?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"The notes state that the most essential element is story or plot. Story should have causal unity and completeness.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},318072,1790054359,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,91,95,100,105,110,115,120,123,127],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":89,"slug":90},80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":92,"show_sort_weight":93,"slug":94},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":96,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":97,"show_sort_weight":98,"slug":99},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":101,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":112,"show_sort_weight":113,"slug":114},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":116,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":117,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":119},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":118,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":121,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":122},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":124,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":125,"show_sort_weight":124,"slug":126},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":55,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":96,"slug":129},"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":131},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":26,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":33,"language":139,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":143,"read_time":101},8796095360427,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_994ba38a5ba835b3df7d355c54d3ed8d","Brief Notes on Aristotle’s POETICS  \nAt the beginning Aristotle announces his intention both to treat of the poetic art and its kinds and to discuss what kind of plot is required for a good poem.  \nThe fundamental principle of the POETICS is that a poem is a mimesis, that is, an imitation. A tragedy, in particular, is an imitation of an action.  \nIt is being an imitation, not being metric discourse, that makes something a poem. Thus, the Socratic dialogues are poems (?), while the philosophical discourses of Parmenides and Empedocles (which were written in epic meter) are not.  \nAristotle discusses a number of genres, some of which are obscure ancient performance genres (such as dithyrambs and nomes) . He seems to include instrumental music and dance as poetry. He ultimately focuses on four kinds—epic tragedy and comedy and dramatic tragedy and comedy.  \nPoetry has three kinds of differentiae—traditionally translated as medium, object, and mode (“in which,””what,” and “how”) .  \nSome of the details of these are obscure, but the main ideas are that:  \nMedium is the sensory characteristic in terms of which the imitation is made. Analogy with other imitative arts: color and figure for painting and sculpture.  \nThe three media of poetry are rhythm, discourse (speech), and harmony or music. The objects of poetry are kinds of moral character—good, bad, and intermediate. The modes are methods of exposition of the story—narration or enactment or mixed. Examples of applying these differentiae: fluteplaying involves rhythm and harmony, whereas dancing involves rhythm alone.  \n\n| Horizontal: objects\u003Cbr>Vertical: modes | Good | Bad |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Enacted | Tragedy | Comedy |\n| Narrated | Tragic epic | Comic epic |\n\nDefinition of tragedy (Chapter 6): “Tragedy, then, is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play; in the form of enactment not narrative; through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation of these emotions.”  \nThe genre of tragedy is seen by Aristotle as the culmination or perfection of the poetic art.  \nThe so-called “parts” of tragedy: Story or plot  \nCharacter Thought Language Spectacle Song  \nThe story is the series of episodes. It ought to have causal unity and completeness. The character is the moral quality of the agent.  \nThought is the viewpoint of the agent and how he argues for it.  \nLanguage is the language of the discourse—it ought to be elevated and still clear. Spectacle (I think) is the sensory appearance of a dramatic presentation. Spectacle seems to be thought of by Aristotle as a means of exposition of the story, and to essentially belong to stagecraft as opposed to poetry.  \nSong—music as used in drama.  \nBy means of some of these elements poetics is connected to other parts of philosophy—plot and character connects poetics with ethics, thought with logic and rhetoric, language with grammar.  \nIn Aristotle’s ethical theory, happiness is the supreme end of human life, and happiness is virtuous activity (in a complete life). Happiness is thus a product of virtue and fortune, and of these two only virtue is within our power. Virtue is of two kinds, intellectual and moral. Intellectual virtue has three spheres—the theoretical, the productive, and the practical. Moral virtue is the tendency or inclination towards those actions which practical reason determines are conducive towards (individual and collective) happiness. Moral virtue is the product of training in the youth and the cumulative effect of one’s history of choices as an adult. All action is for ends, and choice is “deliberate desire,” that is what one desires to do as a result of calculating the means to an end.  \nAristotle evaluates everything in poetry based on the tragic effect—the purgation of the emotions of pity and fear—about which he says very little.  \nThus he relegates what ","cbCaiknRPM4ff9hZ","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiknRPM4ff9hZ","pdf",64720,"English","# Aristotle’s POETICS - Brief Notes\n## Poetic art and the principle of mimesis\n## Genres, four kinds, and the differentiae of poetry\n## Tragedy: definition and its “parts”\n## Ethics, logic, and the tragic effect\n## Plot theory: Oedipus Tyrannus and plot classification","[{\"question\":\"What is the central principle of Aristotle’s Poetics described in these notes?\",\"answer\":\"Poetry is a mimesis, an imitation. In particular, tragedy imitates an action, and this imitation (not metric discourse) is what makes something a poem.\"},{\"question\":\"How do the notes explain the definition of tragedy?\",\"answer\":\"Tragedy is an imitation of a serious, complete action of certain magnitude, presented in embellished language through enactment. It works through pity and fear to achieve the proper purgation of these emotions.\"},{\"question\":\"What does Aristotle consider the most essential element of tragedy?\",\"answer\":\"The notes state that the most essential element is story or plot. Story should have causal unity and completeness.\"}]","Aristotle’s POETICS - Brief Notes | PDF",1789939448]