A representação além da realidade: mimesis e conhecimento teorético na teoria poética aristotélica

The aristotelian thinking on poetry represents an overcoming of the mimesis as simple reproduction of reality. Aristotle agrees with Plato concerning the essence of art as imitation. However, the two philosophers are on opposite positions in the matter of the evaluation of the epistemological quality of mimesis: while Plato regarded mimesis as the art of producing phantoms of reality, and considers it as doxa, for Aristotle it is an art that enables the representation of the universal. According to Aristotle, mimetic art is a cognitive activity as it permits an almost philosophical understanding of the human events in their possibility and probability: it expresses human acting and interacting in its universality. Giving poetry a cognitive power and considering it as a knowledge, leads to attribute to the “poetical knowledge” a founder nature, and therefore a role of hermeneutical guide and normative knowledge.