green numbers give full details | back to texts | unexpand these ideas
22518 | The actual must be possible, because it occurred |
Full Idea: Actual events are evidently possible, otherwise they would not have occurred. | |||
From: Aristotle (The Poetics [c.347 BCE], 1451b18) | |||
A reaction: [quoted online by Peter Adamson] Seems like common sense, but it's important to have Aristotle assert it. |
16566 | Poetry is more philosophic than history, as it concerns universals, not particulars |
Full Idea: Poetry is something more philosophic and of graver import than history, since its statements are rather of universals, whereas those of history are singulars. | |||
From: Aristotle (The Poetics [c.347 BCE], 1451b05) | |||
A reaction: Hm. Characters in great novels achieve universality by being representated very particularly. Great depth of mind seems required to be a poet, but less so for a historian (though there is, I presume, no upward limit on the possible level of thought). |