In
philosophy
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. ...
and
semiotics
Semiotics (also called semiotic studies) is the systematic study of sign processes ( semiosis) and meaning making. Semiosis is any activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, where a sign is defined as anything that communicates something ...
, ''poiesis'' (from grc, ποίησις) is "the activity in which a person brings something into being that did not exist before."
''Poiesis'' is etymologically derived from the ancient Greek term
ποιεῖν, which means "to make". It is related to the word ''
poetry
Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meani ...
'', which shares the same root.
The word is also used as a suffix, as in the biological term
hematopoiesis
Haematopoiesis (, from Greek , 'blood' and 'to make'; also hematopoiesis in American English; sometimes also h(a)emopoiesis) is the formation of blood cellular components. All cellular blood components are derived from haematopoietic stem cells ...
, the formation of
blood cells.
Overview
In the ''
Symposium
In ancient Greece, the symposium ( grc-gre, συμπόσιον ''symposion'' or ''symposio'', from συμπίνειν ''sympinein'', "to drink together") was a part of a banquet that took place after the meal, when drinking for pleasure was acc ...
'', a
Socratic dialogue
Socratic dialogue ( grc, Σωκρατικὸς λόγος) is a genre of literary prose developed in Greece at the turn of the fourth century BC. The earliest ones are preserved in the works of Plato and Xenophon and all involve Socrates as the p ...
written by
Plato
Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...
,
Diotima Diotima may refer to:
People
* Diotima of Mantinea, an ancient female philosopher and tutor of Socrates
* Pen-name of Esme Wynn-Tyson, British author.
* Pseudonym of Susette Borkenstein Gontard in poetry by Friedrich Hölderlin
* Pseudonym of Erm ...
describes how mortals strive for immortality in relation to poiesis. In all begetting and bringing forth upon the beautiful, there is a kind of making/creating or poiesis. In this genesis, there is a movement beyond the temporal cycle of birth and decay. "Such a movement can occur in three kinds of poiesis: (1) Natural poiesis through sexual procreation, (2) poiesis in the city through the attainment of heroic fame, and, finally, (3) poiesis in the soul through the cultivation of virtue and knowledge."
Whereas Plato, according to the ''Timaeus'', regards ''physis'' as the result of ''poiesis'', viz. the ''poiesis'' of the
demiurge
In the Platonic, Neopythagorean, Middle Platonic, and Neoplatonic schools of philosophy, the demiurge () is an artisan-like figure responsible for fashioning and maintaining the physical universe. The Gnostics adopted the term ''demiurge'' ...
who creates from ideas,
Aristotle
Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ...
considers ''poiesis'' as an imitation of ''
physis''. In short, the form or idea, which precedes the ''physis'', contrasts with the living, which is the innate principle or form of self-motion. In other words, the technomorphic paradigm contrasts with the biomorphic; the theory of nature as a whole with the theory of the living individual.
Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger (; ; 26 September 188926 May 1976) was a German philosopher who is best known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. He is among the most important and influential philosophers of the 20th centu ...
refers to it as a 'bringing-forth' (''
physis'' as emergence), using this term in its widest sense. He explained poiesis as the blooming of the blossom, the coming-out of a butterfly from a cocoon, the plummeting of a waterfall when the snow begins to melt. The last two analogies underline Heidegger's example of a threshold occasion: a moment of
ecstasis when something moves away from its standing as one thing to become another. (These examples may also be understood as the unfolding of a thing out of itself, as being discloses or gathers from nothing
hus nothing is thought also as being
Hus or HUS may refer to:
Medicine
* Hemolytic-uremic syndrome, a disease characterized by haemolytic anemia, kidney problems and a low platelet count
People
* Hus (surname)
* Hus family, an 18th-century French dynasty of ballet dancers and acto ...
. Additional example: The night gathers at the close of day.
In literary studies, at least two fields draw on the etymology of ''poiesis'':
ecopoetics and
zoopoetics. As "eco" derives from the root "oikos" meaning "house, home, or hearth", then ecopoetics explores how language can help cultivate (or make) a sense of dwelling on the earth. Zoopoetics explores how animals (zoo) shape the making of a text.
In their 2011 book, ''All Things Shining'',
Hubert Dreyfus
Hubert Lederer Dreyfus (; October 15, 1929 – April 22, 2017) was an American philosopher and professor of philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley. His main interests included phenomenology, existentialism and the philosophy of ...
and
Sean Dorrance Kelly argue that embracing a "meta-poietic" mindset is the best, if not the only, method to authenticate meaning in our secular times: "''Meta-poiesis'', as one might call it, steers between the twin dangers of the secular age: it resists
nihilism
Nihilism (; ) is a philosophy, or family of views within philosophy, that rejects generally accepted or fundamental aspects of human existence, such as objective truth, knowledge, morality, values, or meaning. The term was popularized by I ...
by reappropriating the sacred phenomenon of ''
physis'', but cultivates the skill to resist ''physis'' in its abhorrent, fanatical form. Living well in our secular, nihilistic age, therefore, requires the higher-order skill of recognizing when to rise up as one with the ecstatic crowd and when to turn heel and walk rapidly away."
Furthermore, Dreyfus and Dorrance Kelly urge each person to become a sort of "craftsman" whose responsibility it is to refine their faculty for poiesis in order to achieve existential meaning in their lives and to reconcile their bodies with whatever transcendence there is to be had in life itself: "The task of the craftsman is not to ''generate'' the meaning, but rather to ''cultivate'' in himself the skill for ''discerning'' the meanings that are ''already there.''"
[Hubert Dreyfus and Sean Dorrance Kelly, "All Things Shining", 2011, Simon & Schuster, page 209.]
See also
*
Allopoiesis, a process whereby a system can create something other than itself
*
Autopoiesis
The term autopoiesis () refers to a system capable of producing and maintaining itself by creating its own parts.
The term was introduced in the 1972 publication '' Autopoiesis and Cognition: The Realization of the Living'' by Chilean biologists ...
, the ability of a system to recreate itself
*
Mythopoeia
Mythopoeia ( grc, , , myth-making), or mythopoesis, is a narrative genre in modern literature and film where an artificial or fictionalized mythology is created by the writer of prose, poetry, or other literary forms. This meaning of the word fo ...
, the act of creating a contrived mythology
*
Practopoiesis, a kind of adaptive system, a theory of adaptive organization of living systems
*
Acheiropoiesis
*
Esthesic and poietic
References
External links
Overview of Plato's Symposium
{{Plato navbox
Greek words and phrases
Platonism