Pragmatism
Pragmatie (from Gr. Pragma , thing) describes a type of Aristotle's writings . The pragmaties are the writings not intended for publication, also called esoteric writings (in contrast to the exoteric writings that were intended for publication). The vast majority of the traditional writings, the Corpus Aristotelicum , consists of pragmatics. The expression comes from the fact that Aristotle calls the scientific thematization of a certain subject pragmateia .
For the most part, the pragmatics do not consist of stylistically elaborated text, but are characterized by grammatically incomplete sentences, thought jumps and duplicates. Because of this style, they were sometimes referred to as lecture manuscripts. It is largely disputed that they were in some form the basis of Aristotle's lectures in the Academy or later in the Lykeion and that they were studied in these institutions. In addition to the style, the content also makes great demands on the reader, since Aristotle requires the addressee to have a great deal of previous knowledge of foreign texts and theories, the author of which is in many cases not named. References to the exoteric scriptures show that knowledge of them is also assumed. The duplicates and more elaborate text passages suggest that Aristotle thought of publication in at least some cases.
According to Eckart Schütrumpf , the pragmatics he investigated (including politics ) can be compared with the masterpieces of Attic prose of the 4th century in terms of their stylistic form. He therefore rejects the thesis that the writings in question are lecture notes. Instead, they were written as literary documents for a (professional) reading audience.
literature
- Ralf Lengen: Form and Function of Aristotelian Pragmaty , Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3515077987 (Dissertation 2000, University of Freiburg)
- Eckart Schütrumpf: Form and style of Aristotelian pragmatics . In: Philologus 133 (1989), 177-191.
Remarks
- ↑ Klaus Corcilius: pragma. In: Otfried Höffe (Hrsg.): Aristoteles-Lexikon (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 459). Kröner, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-520-45901-9 , p. 486 f.
- ↑ See Otfried Höffe: Aristoteles , Munich 1996, p. 24
- ↑ Look inside the book