Poetic Expression and Human Enacted Realities: Plato and Aristotle Engage Pragmatist Motifs in Greek Fictional Representations

Authors

  • Robert Prus Uniwersytet Waterloo, Kanada

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8069.7.2.09

Keywords:

Poetics, Fiction, Classical Greek, Plato, Aristotle, Pragmatism, Symbolic Interaction, Representation, Reality, Literary Criticism

Abstract

Poetic expressions may seem somewhat removed from a pragmatist social science, but the history of the development of Western civilization is such that the (knowingly) fictionalized renderings of human life-worlds that were developed in the classical Greek era (c700-300BCE) appear to have contributed consequentially to a scholarly emphasis on the ways in which people engage the world. Clearly, poetic writings constitute but one aspect of early Greek thought and are best appreciated within the context of other developments in that era, most notably those taking shape in the realms of philosophy, religion, rhetoric, politics, history, and education.
These poetic materials (a) attest to views of the human condition that are central to a pragmatist philosophy (and social science) and (b) represent the foundational basis for subsequent developments in literary criticism (including theory and methods pertaining to the representation of human enacted realities in dramaturgical presentations).
Thus, while not reducing social theory to poetic representation, this statement considers the relevance of early Greek poetics for the development of social theory pertaining to humanly enacted realities.

Author Biography

  • Robert Prus, Uniwersytet Waterloo, Kanada

    Robert Prus profesor socjologii na University of Waterloo. Jego zainteresowania naukowe obejmują symboliczny interakcjonizm i tradycję Szkoły Chicago; pragmatyzm społeczny i jego rozwój począwszy od starożytnej Grecji po czasy współczesne w różnorodnych obszarach myśli społecznej (m.in. filozofii, poetyce, retoryce i in.). Autor wielu wybitnych etnografii, między innymi Road Hustler (współautor - C.R.D. Sharper); Hookers, Rounders, and Desk Clerks (wspólnie z Styllianoss Irini); Making Sales; Pursuing Customers; Symbolic Interaction and Ethnographic Research; Subcultural Mosaics and Intersubjective Realities; Beyond the Power Mystique oraz The Deviant Mystique (współautor Scott Grills).

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Published

2011-07-30

How to Cite

Prus, Robert. 2011. “Poetic Expression and Human Enacted Realities: Plato and Aristotle Engage Pragmatist Motifs in Greek Fictional Representations”. Przegląd Socjologii Jakościowej 7 (2): 111-38. https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8069.7.2.09.