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The Aristotelian notion of mimetic instinct

Always fabulous his fine psychological observations, close to life.

Poetry in general seems to have arisen from two causes, each deeply rooted in our nature. The first is the instinct for imitation, implanted in man since childhood, with the difference with respect to other animals that man is the most imitative living creature, and that through imitation he learns the first lessons from him; and no less universal is the pleasure obtained from imitated things. (Aristóteles. Poética. 1448b.4.Ed.Cit.15-15.)

The union of instinct with pleasure occurs in an epistemological environment, mimesis fulfills a cognitive function, first of all, it is something necessary in the way of being of all living beings, with the particularity that it is in the human where it reaches its higher levels of perfection. In addition, mimesis is such a necessary and complex natural function that it can derive its pleasure from the mimetic action itself without the need for knowledge of the original, since the pleasure of learning is obtained equally from the execution as such, from its interpretive colorism.

The epistemological dimension of mimesis was already implicit in the participation of Platonic forms, although Aristotle seems to place the mimetic instinct at the very base of all knowledge. However, the qualitative leap has been immense, mimesis does not obtain its discursive legitimation in another world but its operations are related to it, they are in the fabric of nature and mimesis is one of the main forces if we have to judge by its character of cognitive necessity. Mimesis, in short, becomes fully philosophical. On the other hand, the independence of mimesis with respect to the original is what gives it its autonomous character as a force of nature. Participation in the forms of Plato's mimetic theory caused the relationship between model and participant to be established by the divine craftsman. For Aristotle, the craftsman is the participant himself, since it is his nature that he will imitate, and not only the model but any copy that passes in front of him. The Platonic objection about the copy of the copy is irrelevant in the new natural context. Independence with respect to the other shamanic world allows a theory of mimesis and the mimetic arts based on things and knowledge that are only on the side of the logos of the living. 


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