Jennifer Canon PHI - 2010-15850 T 7PM Aristotle the Great Philosopher The Greek philosopher Aristotle made significant and lasting contributions to nearly every aspect of human knowledge, from logic to biology to ethics and aesthetics. In Arabic philosophy, he was known simply as “The First Teacher”; in the West, he was “The Philosopher.” Aristotle was born in 384 B.C. northern Greece in a town called Stagria . Both of his parents were members of traditional medical families, and his
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Assignment 1 Extract 4 (Sophocles, Oedipus the King) In Greek Tragedy the medium, as in all forms of poetry is language, to convey a story through an imitation of an action, or as Aristotle defines in S.H. Butcher’s translation of Poetics “Tragedy is a mimesis of a praxis.” (Jones, 2000). This translates to an imitation/ representation of an action. Oedipus the King is structured into five episodes with a prologue to begin, each scene is introduced by the
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Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon has traits within its plot and characters that make it comparable to some of the classic tragedies. According to Aristotle in his Poetics, a tragic hero must have a reversal of fortune, hamartia which is a flaw in judgement or character as well as a realization of that flaw later on, and their character must be true to life. Pilate Dead, despite being a more minor character in the novel, is the tragic hero within the plot of Song of Solomon. Pilate experienced her
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Pg. 7 5.Citations. Pg. 8 Aristotle’s approach to philosophy is a little different from Plato’s. Aristotle was fascinated by the intellectual challenge of forming categories and breaking down forms of knowledge whether it were in writing or being performed in a play. Plato would elaborate on the central concern of love between men and gods, the proper
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While it is seemingly established that Antigone is, for her suffering fate and her will to do what is right in the face of grave consequences. However, upon considering the details of the story, and the definition of a “tragic hero” as defined by Aristotle, it seems that, while Antigone may be considered the hero or martyr of the story, Creon is the true Tragic Hero. Creon represents the characteristics of a morally sound man who is nonetheless subject to error. His fate is evidently greater than the
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Aristotle’s Model: The Play as a Whole In Aristotle’s Poetics, Aristotle emphasizes three major elements of a good play: plot, character, and thought. To be more specific, in an Aristotelian play, thought sets the cause of action with character as emotion developer based on plot as the basic form. Besides these three main factors, the idea that a play should be a complete whole is also the basis of the Poetics (Aristotle 61). Therefore, when comparing the choices Lobby Hero by Kenneth Lonergan and
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Medea & “Poetics” Euripides’ Medea, a tale of love, sorrow, and revenge, is, by Aristotle’s standards, a tragedy. The play clearly includes each of the three unities and all of the six elements of theatre, as Aristotle discussed in “Poetics.” However, even though Medea can be accurately categorized as a Greek tragedy, the story lacks a tragic hero. Neither of the two main characters, Medea or Jason, possess all the traits that exist in a tragic hero. According to Aristotle, there are
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English 132 April 8, 2012 Creon’s Tragic Fall: A Look at Sophocles’ Antigone A tragic hero is defined by Aristotle’s Poetics as the protagonist in the story to whom something happens that elicits pity from the audience. For the most part, a tragic hero is a “virtuous” person whose life changes from being prosperous to being a life full of misfortune (Aristotle, Poetics). In other words, the tragic hero is someone of great social standing who begins the story at a very high point, but suffers
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Spencer Eckert Ethics November 13, 2009 Aristotle “All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reason, passion, and desire.” (Aristotle), this quote has great meaning to me because this is the true reasoning behind human actions. This quote helps show that Aristotle was one of the most important founding figures in Western philosophy. It was Aristotle who was the first to create a comprehensive system of Western philosophy and in this philosophy
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Hamartia in Oedipus the King According to the Aristotelian characteristics of good tragedy, the tragic character should not fall due to either excessive virtue or excessive wickedness, but due to what Aristotle called hamartia. Hamartia may be interpreted as either a flaw in character or an error in judgement. Oedipus, the tragic character in Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, certainly makes several such mistakes; however, the pervasive pattern of his judgemental errors seems to indicate a basic character
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