Dalla Prefazione di Manfred Frings: «Il libro di Guido Cusinato non solo riesce a mettere in evidenza la molteplice rilevanza della filosofia di Scheler […], ma illumina anche nuovi aspetti e apre nuove prospettive di indagine. Questo obiettivo viene raggiunto da Cusinato con rigore metodologico e attraverso uno sforzo teso a verificare tutta una serie di affermazioni che erano state fatte finora in modo forse un po’ troppo affrettato. Per es. dimostra che Scheler non era né un dualista né un (...) panteista, come invece spesso si è sostenuto […] Cusinato offre al lettore elementi finalmente efficaci per rivedere parecchi luoghi comuni. In particolare Cusinato ritiene importante, mettere da parte quella categoria interpretativa del “dualismo” fra spirito e vita, che così spesso è stata invece applicata alla sua metafisica. Al suo posto Cusinato suggerisce di intendere la concezione scheleriana della relazione fra spirito e vita, o meglio, fra spirito e pulsione (Geist e Drang), facendo ricorso ad un termine che compare negli ultimi scritti: quello di interpenetrazione (Durchdringung). […] Fra le analisi che Cusinato svolge […] le più preziose e originali mi sembrano essere quelle relative all’umiltà (Demut). Invece nella maggior parte della letteratura su Scheler l’umiltà, uno dei tre atti morali fondamentali per accedere all’atteggiamento filosofico, non viene neppure menzionata. L’interpretazione che ne dà Cusinato, ponendola a fondamento di una «riduzione catartica» pensata in contrasto con la consueta riduzione husserliana, offre senz’altro spunti promettenti per le indagini future» (M. S. Frings, Prefazione, in: G. Cusinato, Katharsis, pp. 6-7). (shrink)

Der Begriff der katharsis ist zur Zeit des Aristoteles für die Bezeichnung von kultisch-rituellen Reinigungen sowie für bestimmte medizinische Reinigungsprozesse etabliert : Im kultisch-religiösen Bereich dient die katharsis der Sühnung von Frevel und Verbrechen und geht durch kultische Handlungen, wie z. B. Opferrituale, vonstatten. Im medizinisch-physiologischen Bereich meint katharsis einerseits die von außen, z. B. durch Brech- und Abführmittel veranlasste Reinigung des Körpers, andererseits aber auch die Selbstreinigung des Körpers, die man u. a. in der Menstruation für (...) gegeben sah. Auch Platon macht vom Begriff der katharsis Gebrauch, verbindet diese aber mit einer Reinigung der Seele bzw. (shrink)

What Aristotle meant by katharsis has tantalised philosophers, psychologists, and literary critics alike for centuries - from metaphors of purgation, purification and ritual cleansing, to claims that katharsis is not an experience of the audience but a property of the play1, a release of feeling, or a kind of pleasure 2. Some authors, such as Daniels and Scully3, even deny that katharsis is essentially an aspect of the emotional experiences of an audience. This paper will provide an (...) attempt at gaining insight into the “singular phenomenon”4 of tragic katharsis via the lens of the psychoanalyst Hanna Segal. My paper will begin by looking at some of the arguments I find most persuasive regarding the nature of katharsis; I shall then turn my attention to Segal’s discussion of tragedy. The final part of the paper will attempt to show how Segal’s discussion can shed light on the analysis of tragedy that Aristotle provides in his Poetics. (shrink)

James Highland; Transformative Katharsis: The Significance of Theophrastus's Botanical Works for Interpretations of Dramatic Catharsis, The Journal of Aesthetic.

In the Introduction to her recent translation of the Poetics, Miss Hubbard astutely recognizes the intellectual orientation of Aristotle's aesthetic theory. She observes that for Aristotle the concept of mimesis is intimately connected with that of mathesis and thus that the basic pleasure of art is the intellectual pleasure involved in learning. She then correctly identifies two levels of the learning process involved in mimesis: on a lower level it signifies the way in which children learn their first lessons but (...) on a much more sophisticated plane it denotes a process by which our understanding of ‘moral facts and moral possibilities’ is deepened. She perceptively concludes that if art is to achieve the goal set for it by Aristotle, it must have a significant relationship to ultimate truth. (shrink)

Die Arbeit untersucht die Konzepte von Reinigung und Reinheit in der Kaiserzeit und in der Spätantike anhand des Werks des Arztes Galen von Pergamon, der Texte der neuplatonischen Philosophen Plotin, Porphyrios und Jamblich und der Schriften der christlichen Theologen Nemesios von Emesa und Gregor von Nyssa. Damit ergründet sie zugleich drei Grundformen der Katharsis: eine medizinische, eine platonisch-philosophische und eine christlich-theologische. Auf der Basis von semantischen Analysen zum Begriffsfeld der Katharsis arbeitet sie das spezifische Profil der verschiedenen Konzepte (...) aus, um dann nach den Gemeinsamkeiten zwischen der Medizin, der Philosophie und der Theologie zu fragen. Für den Arzt Galen steht die gesunde Balance des menschlichen Körpers im Vordergrund. Der Neuplatonismus sieht die Rückkehr der Seele zum Geist als Ziel der Katharsis an. Nach der christlichen Theologie endet die Katharsis in dem unbefleckten Verhältnis der menschlichen Seele zu Gott. (shrink)

Nietzsche’s Catharsis: The Theory of Tragedy and the Anthropology of Power. Nietzsche’s conception of catharsis undercuts the Aristotelian tradition by emphasizing that catharsis does not aim at a purification of the passions but at a cleansing of human judgment from moral sentiment. As such, Nietzsche develops a naturalistic counter-model to eighteenth-century theories of pity. By bringing together ancient Greece and the experience of modernity, this counter-model shifts the concept of catharsis into the realm of the political and enriches the theory (...) of tragedy with an anthropology of power. What is at stake in Nietzsche’s discussion of catharsis is an insight into the instability of normative order, which is triggered by the modern experience of the „phenomenon of Napoleon“ as an overcoming of Enlightenment conceptions of moral conscience. If modernity has to be understood along the lines of tragedy, Napoleon Bonaparte is the cathartic event in the realm of the political. (shrink)

In the Introduction to her recent translation of the Poetics, Miss Hubbard astutely recognizes the intellectual orientation of Aristotle's aesthetic theory. She observes that for Aristotle the concept of mimesis is intimately connected with that of mathesis and thus that the basic pleasure of art is the intellectual pleasure involved in learning. She then correctly identifies two levels of the learning process involved in mimesis: on a lower level it signifies the way in which children learn their first lessons but (...) on a much more sophisticated plane it denotes a process by which our understanding of ‘moral facts and moral possibilities’ is deepened. She perceptively concludes that if art is to achieve the goal set for it by Aristotle, it must have a significant relationship to ultimate truth. (shrink)

In this paper, I argue that journalists who report on tragedies need to avoid two extremes in reader reaction: a state of titillation, as well as a state of revulsion, with regard to the facts of the story. Either reaction distances the reader from experiencing the full reality of the tragic event. I suggest the benefit of studying Aristotle’s writings. In his Poetics and Rhetoric, Aristotle not only describes states of mind which the tragic dramatist takes care to avoid, but (...) he also describes how such authors avoided these extremes. Reporters are not dramatists, but if reporters can apply Aristotle’s understanding of good tragic drama to their reporting, they can better avoid extremes in reader reaction which turn readers away from the full reality of disasters and atrocities, and thereby help them better cope with news that is often profoundly disturbing. (shrink)

La _mousikē_ (μουσική) es el núcleo del programa educativo que Aristóteles diseña en la _Política_ para el mejor régimen. El filósofo le asigna a esta disciplina diferentes funciones y propone una consideración jerárquica de ellas. Aunque men­ciona explícitamente tres propósitos musi­cales, a saber, el juego, la educa­ción y el ocio, en el últi­mo capítulo de la obra refiere a la _katharsis_ (κάθαρσις) como una función diferen­ciada, cuyo vínculo con las restantes no precisa (_Pol_. 1341b38-40). Mi propósito en el presente trabajo (...) es mostrar que resulta proble­mático determinar el lugar que ocupa la _katharsis_ en el esquema de las funciones musicales que Aristó­teles bosqueja en _Pol_. VIII 3, 5-7, en espe­cial, en relación con la función lúdica y con la educativa. En tal sentido, intentaré demostrar que su posición oscila entre ambas y que, en el caso particular de los ciuda­danos del mejor régimen, la función ética es condición de la _katharsis_. Con vistas a ello, analizaré los pasajes de _Pol_. VIII 5-7 en los que el filósofo tácita o explícita­mente refiere a este término, con especial aten­ción a la valiosa y singular considera­ción general sobre su signifi­cado, que ofrece en _Pol_. 1342a5-15. (shrink)

In the fifth stasimon of Antigone the chorus observes that "the whole city is subject to a violent sickness" and invokes Dionysos to "come with kathartic foot." It is generally assumed that the katharsis the chorus has in mind is purification of Thebes from a plague or pollution arising from the unburied corpse of Polyneikes; katharsis of this sort is however unattested as a function of Dionysos. It is argued that this is rather the earliest explicit attestation of (...) the kathartic effect of ecstatic Dionysiac dancing upon nosos as mental disorder, the chorus equating the mental nosos of Kreon, Antigone and Haimon with the nosos of civil strife affecting Thebes. A large number of passages indicate that mention of feet in cultic and especially Dionysiac contexts almost invariably refers to dancing, which is a dominant motif of the fifth stasimon both in its content as hymn to Dionysos and formally as a hyporcheme. Evidence from the fifth century and from Plato for the connection of Dionysos with kathartic dancing as a cure for mental disorder is stronger than previous discussions maintain. It is suggested that Sophokles elides two senses of nosos-mental disorder and civil strife-and that the chorus are invoking Dionysos to relieve them of the stress of these, rather than of a general plague or pollution. Whereas mental disorders and civil strife are constant themes of the play, the corpse as pollutant affects only altars-nothing like a "violent plague" is attested in the text. This reinterpretation of the ode suggests that it relates rather to the tragic conflict still to be played out among the principal characters than to the corpse, which is shortly buried with invocation of Hekate and Plouton rather than Dionysos. (shrink)

Many people in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic monotheistic traditions testify to their experience of being commanded by God to do something or to be a certain way. Is this kind of testimony from experience credible in some cases, and, if so, on what ground? The main thesis of this article is that it is credible in some cases and a suitable ground is available in the morally purifying experience of the human conscience. The article looks to the Hebrew Bible, the (...) New Testament, and the Qur’an for relevant testimony to the importance of righteous divine commanding experienced by humans. The relevant commands are not abstract or merely theoretical but grounded in human moral experience and potentially motivating for righteous action. The article doubts that God would be God if there were no divine commanding given directly to receptive people in their moral experience. It contends that God would not be a morally righteous guide of the divine kind needed for the worthiness of worship by humans in the absence of God’s commanding people directly in their experience. (shrink)

IN Chapter 6 of the Poetics Aristotle defines tragedy as.