Poiesis
Author(s)
Kalantidou, Eleni
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2015
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Poïesis, a noun originated from the ancient Greek verb ποιεῖν (poiein), is referred to as the act of making or production. It appeared in the work of many ancient Greek philosophers, and its analysis by contemporary theorists has been mostly connected to the writings of Plato and Aristotle. Martin Heidegger elaborated the notion of poïesis in many of his books and essays, especially in Being and Time (Heidegger, 1953/1996) and The Question Concerning Technology (Heidegger, 1977). In the latter, Heidegger used Plato’s definition to demonstrate his conviction that poïesis is a “bringing forth,” that is, the process that brings ...
View more >Poïesis, a noun originated from the ancient Greek verb ποιεῖν (poiein), is referred to as the act of making or production. It appeared in the work of many ancient Greek philosophers, and its analysis by contemporary theorists has been mostly connected to the writings of Plato and Aristotle. Martin Heidegger elaborated the notion of poïesis in many of his books and essays, especially in Being and Time (Heidegger, 1953/1996) and The Question Concerning Technology (Heidegger, 1977). In the latter, Heidegger used Plato’s definition to demonstrate his conviction that poïesis is a “bringing forth,” that is, the process that brings into presence an entity or an image out of its own self. Moreover, he linked this to the notion of physis to show the unique quality of bringing something into existence out of and in itself (e.g., the blossoming of a flower) and to differentiate this process from the work of artisans that bring forth an outcome from their selves but not in their own selves. Heidegger interpreted poïesis as unconcealment, a “bringing forth grounded in revealing—Aletheia (truth)” (Ibid., p. 12) and related it to Aristotle’s notion of technê, meaning a mode that reveals. For Aristotle, technê is a matter of producing that involves a poïesis characterized by authenticity (true reasoning), signifying a process of disclosure instead of an instrumental formation of an outcome. Additionally, for Aristotle, praxis is an end in itself while poïesis has an end outside itself (Ross and Brown, 2009).
View less >
View more >Poïesis, a noun originated from the ancient Greek verb ποιεῖν (poiein), is referred to as the act of making or production. It appeared in the work of many ancient Greek philosophers, and its analysis by contemporary theorists has been mostly connected to the writings of Plato and Aristotle. Martin Heidegger elaborated the notion of poïesis in many of his books and essays, especially in Being and Time (Heidegger, 1953/1996) and The Question Concerning Technology (Heidegger, 1977). In the latter, Heidegger used Plato’s definition to demonstrate his conviction that poïesis is a “bringing forth,” that is, the process that brings into presence an entity or an image out of its own self. Moreover, he linked this to the notion of physis to show the unique quality of bringing something into existence out of and in itself (e.g., the blossoming of a flower) and to differentiate this process from the work of artisans that bring forth an outcome from their selves but not in their own selves. Heidegger interpreted poïesis as unconcealment, a “bringing forth grounded in revealing—Aletheia (truth)” (Ibid., p. 12) and related it to Aristotle’s notion of technê, meaning a mode that reveals. For Aristotle, technê is a matter of producing that involves a poïesis characterized by authenticity (true reasoning), signifying a process of disclosure instead of an instrumental formation of an outcome. Additionally, for Aristotle, praxis is an end in itself while poïesis has an end outside itself (Ross and Brown, 2009).
View less >
Book Title
The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Design vol 3
Volume
3
Subject
Built Environment and Design not elsewhere classified