7/28/2019 Review of Bernadete Art of Poetics

1/2

Anthropismos

Tag Archives: seth benardete

FEBRUARY 24, 2012 14:27

peri potiksThe past couple of days, I read Seth Benardete & Michael Daviss translation of AristotlesPoetics. Unsurprisingly,

Benardete & Davis read thePoetics as a discourse on, not only drama, but the soul. I like Daviss statement, in the

introduction, of the guide to their method:

Naturally how one understands Aristotles manner of writing in On Poetics has consequences for how one willtranslate him. If the book is not properly speaking a writing at all, but a collection of lecture notes the intention of

which, while generally quite clear, is occasionally dark owing to Aristotles infelicitous choice of words, then a

translator will have as his task rendering the sense of what is obvious and striving to clarify what Aristotle has left

obscure. If, on the other hand, On Poetics is an artful composition, a translator will seek to preserve interesting

ambiguities, translate Greek terms consistently with a single word as much as is compatible with English so as to

preserve allusion in the text that suggest otherwise odd but perhaps fruitful comparisons, and not to change

sentence structures gratuitously. Now even ifOn Poetics were simply a collection of notes, as long as

this sort of fastidiousness results in readable English, nothing would be sacrificed. And ifOn Poetics

is something more than that, of course, a great deal would be gained from translating scrupulously.

viii, emphasis mine

Benardete, as a student of Strauss, is unfairly associated with the dominant view of Strauss in the wake of the Straussian

theory of neoconservative origins. Benardete held that, rather than philosophy being the guide to politics, its

esotericism was to protect philosophyfrom politics. (For example Daviss introduction holds that, for Aristotle, political

courage is a spurious form of that virtue.) Even the esoteric word, while used, seems inappropriate in its connotations;

Benardete in particular (and oftentimes Strauss himself) engage in readings of the text which, however eccentric they

seem, are born of taking the writer and the text very seriously; the esotericism is no more esoteric than Biblical

interpretation it is not a secret tradition. Benardetes reading is about how the philosophical works themselves lead the

readers to examine the issues and towards an enlightening, not always cleaving to literalism, but nevertheless beingreadable inthemselves (or, at least, in the context of the author).

As a method of translation, I think this is fruitful. While there are translation of Aristotle which take him seriously and

attempt to render him into a normal, expressive English, not all are particularly or consistently fruitful. Joe Sachss

translation of theMetaphysics is at times unusually enlighteningsuch as his translation of as being

atwork*but others of his quasiHeideggerian translations are more obscuring than enlightening; is

rendered beingatworkstayingitself, which preserves the relation to at the cost of easy comprehensibility

and readability. (That said, Sachss introduction is excellent and the translation itself is a worthy read for someone trying

to comprehend theMetaphysics.)

One thing I appreciate about the Benardete/Davis translation is its lack of leading vocabulary. As Davis points out, Greek

tragedy is quite different from our drama, and they largely avoid terms associated with it (including the English adoption

of catharsis). For example: (1455b) is rendered by them, Of every

benardete | Anthropismos http://anthropismos.wordpress.com/tag/seth-benardete/

2 20/06/2013 13:47

7/28/2019 Review of Bernadete Art of Poetics

2/2

tragedy there is an entanglement and an unraveling. Compare this to the common Bywater translation: Every tragedy is

in part Complication and in part Dnouement. By the use of dnouement, the Bywater suggests a probably

inappropriate association with our conception of dramatic closure.

In other places, Benardete and Davis are respectful of traditional readings, most of all in the title. Daviss introduction

remarks that On the Art of Action may be a more appropriate reading of , preserving the connection

between dramatic and normal human action, shoring up their reading of the treatise as being ultimately about the soul,

the center of human life. (xiii) They also divide the text by the traditional divisions, whatever their actual utility inunderstanding it.

The translation is very readable by those not familiar with Greek. The footnotes are useful, though sometimes overlong

(endnotes would have been a better format, probably) and explain most of the various decisions, including noting each

incident where a word they consistently translate in one way is rendered differently. In a sense, this review is set as a

contrast to my recent review of Fr Behrs translation ofOn the Incarnation an example of a better path.

* While this may sound overbold, I think a more proper understanding of the metaphysical role of is useful to correct the NeoPalamite

mistake of overstating the difference between the Eastern conception of God and the Western. A further explication of this would be inappropriate

on this blog; I only offer it as a suggestive remark.

benardete | Anthropismos http://anthropismos.wordpress.com/tag/seth-benardete/

2 20/06/2013 13:47