Ep. 243: Aristotle's "Poetics" on Art and Tragedy (Part One)

The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

Mark Linsenmayer

Casey, Paskin, Philosophy, Linsenmayer, Society & Culture, Alwan

4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 11 May 2020

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

These notes from 335 BCE are still used in screenwriting classes. Aristotle presents a formula for what will move us, derived from Sophocles's tragedies.

What is art? The text describes it as memesis (imitation), and tragedy imitates human action in a way that shows us what it is to be human. Aristotle has lots of advice about how to structure a plot optimized to our sensibilities. Join Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Seth to see if you think he's right.

Don't wait for part two; get the full, ad-free Citizen Edition now. Please support PEL!

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Partially examine life relies on your support.
0:02.2	To find out how to help, in ways that are cheap or even free for you,
0:05.5	check out partiallyexaminedlife.com slash support.
0:16.2	We're listening to the partially examined life a podcast by some guys
0:19.3	who had one point set on doing philosophy for living, but then thought better of it.
0:23.1	Our question for episode 243 is something like,
0:26.2	what is art or more narrowly, what makes Greek tragedy work?
0:30.3	And we read Aristotle's poetics written somewhere around at 335 BCE.
0:35.9	For more information, please visit partiallyexaminedlife.com.
0:39.3	This is Mark Linson-Mire cleansing you with my sweetened speech from Madison, Wisconsin.
0:43.9	This is Seth Pascon imitating an object in Austin, Texas.
0:48.5	This is Wes Aulone talking to you according to the laws of probability and necessity
0:54.7	from Cambridge Massachusetts.
0:56.5	This is Dylan Casey twitching with tragic recognition in Madison, Wisconsin.
1:01.5	All right, we're back to Aristotle, eating our vegetables.
1:06.4	That's how I think of it.
1:08.1	This one was, I guess, more fun than a normal Aristotle.
1:10.9	What did you guys think?
1:12.2	Way more fun than normal Aristotle.
1:16.1	You just reject the premise, Dylan.
1:17.9	This is not vegetables.
1:19.7	To me, it's like a nice good steak.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Mark Linsenmayer, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Mark Linsenmayer and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.