* Aristotle discusses the nature of poetry and its relation to human nature

* Today this is what we would call aesthetics.

* Aristotle believes that art is not completely cut off from knowledge
* He believes that imitation,and thus art, has a fundamental active relationship to
human nature.
* Laziness pervades the human species.

* Aristotle says that all men by nature desire to know.

: By nature, everything desires its own perfection.

And since man is what he is because of his intellect, men naturally desire
knowledge.
[3] Further, each thing has an inclination to perform its proper operation.
Man differs from all other things by the fact that his proper operation is to
understand,
[4] and therefore man has a natural inclination to understand.

* what are the causes that make humans create poetry in the first place?
-First, there is man’s pleasure of imitation, for imitation is an
essential aspect of human development from youth.
: This is an essential aspect that differentiates humans from
lower animals, for they are not capable of learning
from imitation to the extent that man is. [7] Because man
has such an intimate relation to imitation,
he also has an intimate relation to teaching in general,
for imitation is an essential part of teaching.

-The second cause is the natural love man has for harmony in melodies and all
combinations.
: Poetry making is therefore directly related to man’s
natural inclinations, which are also essentially connected
with man’s predisposition for learning. Thus, that which
brings about poetry and art in man is no more of an
illusion that his thirst and acquisition of knowledge.
In fact, the making of poetry originates in man’s natural
instinct and talent.

* But what exactly is imitation? For Aristotle, it is the combination of the

imagination along with speech and tone.
* Aristotle, tragedy as a superior form of art can do this by generating pity
and fear through its form.
* According to Aristotle, ideal tragedy depicts the protagonist as one who is
better than average men, yet who still relates to the audience.