The "Lost Second Book of Aristotle's ""Poetics"""

Walter Watson

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English

University of Chicago Press
23 March 2015

Literary theory; Western philosophy: Ancient, to c 500

Of all the writings on theory and aesthetics—ancient, medieval, or modern—the most important is indisputably Aristotle’s Poetics, the first philosophical treatise to propound a theory of literature. In the Poetics,

Aristotle writes that he will speak of comedy—but there is no further

mention of comedy. Aristotle writes also that he will address catharsis

and an analysis of what is funny. But he does not actually address any

of those ideas. The surviving Poetics is incomplete.

Until today. Here, Walter Watson offers a new interpretation of the lost second book of Aristotle's Poetics.

Based on Richard Janko’s philological reconstruction of the epitome, a

summary first recovered in 1839 and hotly contested thereafter, Watson

mounts a compelling philosophical argument that places the statements of

this summary of the Aristotelian text in their true context. Watson

renders lucid and complete explanations of Aristotle’s ideas about

catharsis, comedy, and a summary account of the different types of

poetry, ideas that influenced not only Cicero’s theory of the

ridiculous, but also Freud’s theory of jokes, humor, and the comic.

Finally, more than two millennia after it was first written, and after five hundred years of scrutiny, Aristotle’s Poetics is more complete than ever before. Here, at last, Aristotle’s lost second book is found again.

By: Walter Watson
Imprint: University of Chicago Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 23mm, Width: 15mm, Spine: 2mm
Weight: 482g
ISBN: 9780226274119
ISBN 10: 022627411X
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 23 March 2015
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Walter Watson is professor emeritus of philosophy at Stony Brook University, State University of New York. His previous book was The Architectonics of Meaning: Foundations of the New Pluralism.

Reviews for The "Lost Second Book of Aristotle's ""Poetics"""

Here, Walter Watson makes the strongest possible claim, asserting that the Tractatus Coislinianus is a true and reliable summary of the lost second book of the Poetics. Readers will be especially grateful for his illuminating notes on such central--and vexed--issues in Poetics I as catharsis and the ends of tragedy; and Watson uses Poetics II to shine a welcome light on final cause, spectacle, didacticism, and the different senses of poetry. Even if readers find something here and there to disbelieve, they are unlikely to find anything anywhere in this book that they do not admire. --James E. Ford, emeritus, University of Nebraska Lincoln