La presunta dimensione conoscitiva della mimesis aristotelica: un lungo equivoco

The article reconsiders the debated question whether or not mimēsis has a cognitive dimensionin Aristotle’s Poetics. The negative answer is argued through the re-discussion of the passages on whichthe "cognitive" thesis is based: Poetics 4, Poetics 9 and the recurrent expression "according toverisimilitude or necessity". What emerges is that mathēsis, as mentioned by Aristotle, is not in directrelation with the causes or with the functions of the artistic or literary work, but only designates the seriousand complex interpretative operation required by the fruition. The greater universality of poetry comparedto history, in turn, has nothing to do with "the universals" in the philosophical sense and refers, instead, tothe universal character of the events narrated, whose universality is based on the emotional dimension.Finally, the rational structure of the plot due to its organization according to verisimilitude or necessity isnot a logical structure aimed at conveying knowledge, but rather a semiotic structure that has, on thecontrary, a purely aesthetic and emotional purpose. In a broader perspective, the "cognitive" interpretationof Aristotelian mimēsis is the expression of a prejudice determined by the «ancient discord betweenphilosophy and poetry», whereby philosophy makes violence to the radical alterity of art’s vision of theworld, in an attempt to conform it to its own totalizing project of reality.