ABSTRACT
Tragedy imitates human acts. For Aristotle, man's soul was composed of a rational part and of another, irrational part. The irrational soul could produce certain activities such as eating, walking or performing any physical movement without greater significance than the physical act itself. Politics has for its field of study the totality of the relationships of the totality of men. Therefore the greatest good, the attainment of which would entail the greatest virtue, is the political good. Tragedy imitates those actions of man which have the good as their goal; but it does not imitate actions which have minor ends, of secondary importance. Man, as part of nature, also has certain ends in view: health, gregarious life in the State, happiness, virtue, and justice. The spectator must purify himself of the 'excess', whatever direction it takes, whether excess of love of the State to the detriment of the Family.
