A DISTINÇÃO ENTRE PRINCÍPIO POÉTICO E PRINCÍPIO FILOSÓFICO

DA INVENÇÃO À INTERPRETAÇÃO

Abstract

Given the previously existent form of knowledge in ancient Greece, namely, mythic poetry, the historical origin of philosophy goes in two ways: in one way, philosophy could just continue the path already taken by the poets; on the other hand, philosophy emerges as an alternative model of understanding reality. The groundbreaking gesture that marks this alternative is focused on a new conception of principle (arché), that, in opposition to the formerly tradition, loses its historical and timely character. When one analyses the ideas of principle in ancient poetry and also in the early philosophy, one identifies then a methodological difference towards the knowledge of reality: while the mythopoetical method functions as a way of thought which is settled on the art of invention, philosophy, by its turn, finds its method in theory, leaving behind the poetical invention. Simultaneously, it lays the scope to the way of thought that, until our days, we might call interpretation.