Probability in Aristotle's Rhetoric & Poetics

At the outset, it is important to note that Aristotle makes certain assumptions about the character of the universe. In particular, he assumes that man is a social being, that civilized man lives in a political community, and that he addresses remarks to members of an ordinary, rational, commonsense civilized society. The audience for the Rhetoric and the Poetics is rational, has language, can discriminate in some basic ways; this may be taken as a contract between the philosopher and his students. It is important to recognize this with regard to relevance for Aristotelian rhetoric in contemporary society because of the claims that may be made on behalf of unthinking or nonthinking man, the primitive, or what Aristotle might call the barbarian. To make rational assumptions about the broad character of the philosophical audience appears to have been itself an achievement of western civilization, and therefore the persistently ethical aspect of Aristotle's philosophy of rhetoric and poetic art appears to lay some claim to cont

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people do or how they behave as they develop their ideas. Thus, with the second idea, that drama portrays action, we are immediately back to ethics. The actions of the characters in the play determine what the audience thinks of them and of their ideas. The artist's imaginative faculty creates characters and shows actions, but the content of such actions are nonethelessor for that very reasonas susceptible to logical or rhetorical examination as any straightforward political or logical proposition. Profound philosophical, ethical, and indeed rhetorical complexity is embedded therefore into the definition of tragedy, for to the degree the serious poetic creation is a set piece, it is presumed to have an important philosophical purpose, the conception and resolution of which are contained in its pattern of ideas. To the degree the completion or workingout of contingent action is aesthetically, rationally, or logically satisfactory, the pattern of an action's probabilities, as well as the ethical judgment of the actions themselves, can be defended. To the degree the pattern of contingent action fails the test of probability, it can be attacked. "A likely impossibility," explains Aristotle, "is always preferable to an unc
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Approximate Word count = 4551
Approximate Pages = 18 (250 words per page)

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