Aristotle’s Poetics: A New Translation
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty, —that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”
(John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn)
The ancient Greek culture that inspired Keats to write these lines is beautifully interpreted by Aristotle. What is beauty? What is truth?
Aristotle’s Poetics is best known for its definition and analysis of tragedy, but it also applies to truth and beauty as they are manifested in the other arts. In our age when the natural and social sciences have dominated the quest for truth, it is helpful to consider why Aristotle claimed that “poetry is more philosophical and more significant than history.” In this postmodern era when the arts have been separated from ethics, it is worthwhile to consider Aristotle’s way of connecting goodness and beauty.