The Moral View of Aristotle's Poetics

Abstract

Commentators on the Poetics and literary historians often insist that Aristotle the first to distinguish aesthetics from morals. S.H. Butcher says that Aristotle was the first who attempted to separate the theory of aesthetics from that of morals. He maintains consistently that the end of poetry is a refined pleasure ... he never allows the moral purpose of the poet or the moral effects of his art to take the place of the artistic end. Monroe Beardsley says that when Aristotle turns to the art of poetry (poietike), he is determined to mark out boundaries and study the nature of that art quite independently of its moral and political connections.2 And J.W.H. Atkins says of Aristotle: significant is his challenge of the ethical view of poetry, his contention that the poet's function is primarily to give pleasure. So that, from now on, there no excuse ... for confusing aesthetic with moral standards in judging art.3 I think these judgments do not do justice to Aristotle' s moral view of aesthetics. It is hard to know whether the cause is an attempt by these interpreters to dramatize the differences between Plato's wholly moralistic and Aristotle's less moralistic view of literature, an attempt to found modem critical theories on an ancient and respected source, or an attempt just to make sense of an often obscure text by maintaining that Aristotle distinguishes sharply between aesthetics and morals. G.M.A. Grube and Humphry House have provided readings of the Poetics that argue well but only incidentally against this distortion.4 I think that a more pointed and comprehensive analysis is required, that a discussion of some of the main ideas of Aristotle's theory-of plot especially-is needed to illustrate how morally laden is his theory of tragedy. For not to realize the degree to which moral assumptions underlie the Poetics is to misconstrue both Aristotle and the history of aesthetics.