Human’s Twofold Nature. Mίμησις and φύσις in Aristotle’s Thinking

​Abstract: The analysis of Aristotle’s account on the process of imitation, as it is presented in the Poetics, could shed some new light on the way the Greek philosopher conceived of human’s nature as a twofold phenomenon, including a non-judicative moment and a judicative or discursive one. Aside from the “rationality” and “sociability”, presented in the Politics as essential to humanity, Aristotle designates imitation (μίμησις) as a non-judicative and a-rational side of human nature, which helps us gain the first pieces of information about the world and constitutes our “noetic life”. My aim is to show that the act of imitation is viewed by Aristotle as the most fundamental trait of human’s nature, the trait that makes our “rational” and “social” character possible.
Keywords: Aristotle, imitation, art, aesthetics, meontology, affective hermeneutics.

Publicația: 2400 Years of Thinking with Aristotle, Editura Universității din București

Anul Publicării: 2020