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Unit 1: Aristotle: The Poetics—Introduction to the Author and the Text

me”, was his traditional reply, “provided I am not there.” At Athens, though broken, was still the Notes
intellectual capital of Greece, “the eye of Greece”. There Aristotle now founded his own school,
the Lyceum, in a grove of Appollo, at Lyceius, south of Lycabettus, and not far from the present
British School. Its buildings included a covered walk or walks, a museum, and a library. He would
walk up and down the grove as he taught, and hence the term ‘peripetic’, used for his philosophy.
More and more his mind seems to have turned to scientific study of concrete realities : as if he had
taken to heart the old Chinese saying—”I spent a whole day meditating—I should have done
better to learn; I stood on tiptoe for a good view—better had I climbed a hill.” And so research was
now organised by him on an encyclopaedic scale—in politics, history, literature, natural science
and biology. His fame spread. He became, what Dante calls him, “the Master of those who know”.
Last Years and Death
But his last years were not unshadowed. His wife had died; Alexander, though he had sent his old
tutor biological data from his conquests, deteriorated with success, saw fit to become a god,
ignored Aristotle’s advice to treat his Greek subjects on a higher footing than Orientals, and put to
death Aristotle’s nephew, the tactless Callisthenes. Lastly, when Alexander himself expired at
Babylon, Athens leapt to arms against the Macedonians; and, as part of the campaign, Aristotle
was accused of impiety, largely for the praises lavished in his poem, years ago, on his dead father-
in-law Hermeias. To save the Athenians, as he put it, “from sinning against philosophy a second
time,” the old philosopher withdrew of Chalcis in Euboea, where he died next year (B.C. 322),
aged sixty-three.
His Will
We still have the will in which he provided with careful considerateness for his family and slaves,
in particular for his mistress Herpyllis and his son by her; with his own ashes were to be laid, as
she had wished, those of his dead wife Pythias. In this will he provided for the deliverance of his
slaves : “It is the first emancipation proclamation in history”.
His Views on God
A brief review of Aristotle’s views on God, on the state and the government, and on morality and
ethics, is essential for a proper understanding of his theory of poetry and the fine arts as developed
in The Poetics. We, therefore, give here the salient features of his views on these subjects.
In the philosophical system of Aristotle, God is not the Creator of the universe but the Cause of its
motion. For a creator is a dreamer, and a dreamer is a dissatisfied personality, a soul that yearns
for something that is not, an unhappy being who seeks for happiness—in short, an imperfect
creature who aims at perfection. But God is perfect and since he is perfect he cannot be dissatisfied
or unhappy. He is, therefore, not the Maker but the Mover of the universe. He is the unmoved
mover of the universe.
Every other source of motion in the world, whether it be a person or a thing or a thought, is
(according to Aristotle) a moved mover. Thus the plough moves the earth, the hand moves the
plough, the brain moves the hand, the desire for food moves the brain, the instinct for life moves
the desire for food and so on. In other words, the cause of every motion is the result of some other
motion. The master, of every slave is the slave of some other master. Even the tyrant is the slave
of his ambition. But God is the result of no action. He is the slave of no master. He is the source of
all action, the master of all masters, the instigator of all thought and movement.
Furthermore, God is not interested in the world, though the world is interested in God. For to be
interested in the world means to be subject to emotion, to be swayed by prayers or by criticism, to
be capable of changing one’s mind as a result of somebody else’s actions or desires or thoughts—
in short, to be imperfect. But God is passionless, changeless, perfect. He moves the world as a
beloved object moves the lover.
The Aristotelian God, who is loved by all men, but who is indifferent to their fate, is a cold,
impersonal and, from our modern religious standpoint, “perfectly” unsatisfactory type of Supreme
Being. He resembles the Primal Energy of the scientists rather than the Heavenly Father of the
poets.

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