A Study Of The Problem Of "Action" In Aristotle’s Poetics

After entering the 21st century,the academic community’s understanding of"action" is caught in a philosophical dilemma,so it seeks a way out from art.As the first professional,complete and systematic poetical work in the West,the Poetics of the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle occupies a classic position in the history of literature and even art,and it is also an important text that constitutes the knowledge system of Aristotle’s "creative science".The long neglected concept of "action" in Poetics will be the key to get out of this dilemma.This study will focus on "action"and examine the etymological meaning and unique connotation of "action" from two aspects:"external identification" and "internal identification".Chapter 1 introduces the flow of editions of Poetics and the English-Chinese translations.The original Poetics is still ancient Greek,and the Chinese translation has been translated into "action" several times,among which the most influential is the English translation,so it is necessary to correct the source.Firstly,we will briefly summarize the route of Aristotle ’s life,secondly,we will examine the history of the movement of the Poetics,and on the basis of the first two,we will introduce in detail the relationship between the Arabic,A,B and Latin versions of the Poetics.This is followed by a chronology of the English and Chinese translations of the Poetics.Chapter 2 focuses on the philosophical background of the complex phenomenon of "action" in Poetics:The text of the Poetics shows that "action" is not a specific word,but a system of words that contain the meaning of "action”.The purpose of this paper is to seek its roots in Aristotle’s philosophical thought,in the idea of separateness in the definition of language and in the "synonymy" of research methods used in non-scientific fields,as exemplified by the complexity of "action" in Poetics.Chapter 3 mainly lists the classification of "action" by previous scholars,mainly introducing Luo Niansheng’s dichotomy of "action" and "movement",Ferguson’s trichotomy of "practice","making" and "contemplation",and Wang Shiyi’s improvement of "creative action" and "making action" based on them.The dichotomy is based on translation theory,which is the first of its kind but one-sided;the trichotomy is based on the internal mental movement of the subject,and the distinction is refined but too internalized,and its criteria cannot be quantified.The dichotomous method is based on the function of drama,which is the most complete,but unfortunately,it is too presumptuous and misses Aristotle’s original intention.Chapter 4 reinterprets the concepts of "action" through dictionary interpretation,translation annotation,textual context,and ancient Greek concepts,based on the four divisions of "action".The first type of action is ποιεω.This paper summarizes the meanings listed in the dictionary,examines the evolution of the concept of "creation"through production-poetry-creation and its additional ethical connotation of education,and believes that the translation is more appropriate as "production action".The second type of action is πραξιζ,and the study cites Margoliouth’s note that this type of action emphasizes the connotation of reason and virtue,so it is more appropriately translated as action.The third type of action is δραν,which is the etymology of drama.Through the analysis of the text of Poetics,the author believes that this word can be translated as "expressive action".The fourth type of action is κινω,which can be translated as "physical action",and the study is also based on Aristotle’s refutation of the vulgar view to further explore its important practical significance.Chapter 5 focuses on the concept of "imitation" to gain insight into the connotations of action in the Poetics.First,we compare Plato’s imitation with Aristotle’s mimicry,which is a narrow imitation as opposed to narrative,while Aristotle in the Poetics takes a broad view of imitation and regards it as the basic mechanism of operation of poetry and even art,the effect of which is to isolate reality and open up a fictional,inactive space.By virtue of this space,the ethical tragedy of the loss of control of rational and virtuous action over reality is demonstrated,in a way that shocks the emotions and makes one perceive the existence of the universal structure of action-the ambiguity of action.Finally,the paper argues that in the fictional space of inaction separated by the mechanism of imitation,the tragedy caused by πραξιζ and κινω’s loss of control over the world is expressed by δραν in order to shake people’s emotions and make them realize the ambiguous nature of action,thus pointing to ποιεω as the core of the action of Poetics-the eternity of "becoming" embedded in it.From the perspective of contemporary art ontology,the introduction of the concept of "action" will improve the art ontology dominated by "art works" from the perspective of research paradigm.