Resonancias platónicas en la Poética de Aristóteles

Abstract

This article analyses the relation between Plato and Aristotle as it appears in Aristotle’s Poetics. The Poetics can be seen as a peculiar work within the Aristotelian corpus (at least from a methodological point of view) because in it Aristotle does not discuss the stances of his predecessors (specifically Plato’s), and also because the difference between what is first by nature and what is first for us, is not found in it. Furthermore, this work has a practical purpose: the achievement of excellent poetry. This analysis tries to show that several topics contained in the Poetics (tragic catharsis, verisimilitude, universality of poetry, and the idea that imitation gives knowledge and pleasure) can be seen as an ulterior development of Platonic theories.