Revisiting Aristotle’s notion of Technē and Reinventing its Interpretative Potential
The traditional interpretation of Aristotle’s Poetics (peri poetikes technēs) that has put catharsis at the center of artistic creation for millennia has been challenged by perhaps marginal but indubitably groundbreaking discoveries in the philological-philosophical interpretation of Aristotle’s text in mid-20th which dovetails with the readings of Aristotle preferred by the French school of interdisciplinary studies of Antiquity most prominent in the 90’s spearheaded by Jean-Pierre Vernant. Instead of catharsis, we ought to speak of systasis – or structure – of the work of art, following said invitations for a radically different reading of Aristotle’s work. The creation of the work of art is no different than any other form of cognition if we follow Aristotle’s original understanding of the notion of mimesis rendering art, technology and philosophy closely interlocked. Mimesis in Aristotle, cloning in Laruelle or Maßstab in Wittgenstein will be discussed in order to rediscover and perhaps reinvent the notions of art (technē), scientific discovery and artificiality of signification (language and cognition).
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