Leitura e deliberação : um retorno a Aristóteles

Abstract

The thesis investigates a possible contribution of Aristotle to the systematization of reading in the West. It assumes that reading is triggered by admiration (to\qauma/zein) regarding the complexity of the world. Such world is understood as Kosmos (kosmoj), thus giving a particularly physical dimension to it, not only metaphoric. It is aimed to find evidences that Aristotle promoted the first elements which allowed the arising of the autonomous reader in an extended way. In parallel, when established the gender of treatise as a way to expose his thoughts, it favored the transition from orality to writing, initiated by Plato, at least in regard to the philosophical text, but not merely it. It is sought, in the concept of deliberation (bou/leusij) proposed by Aristotle, elements that constitute and give basis for a wide range of means to promote readings that can approach what we commonly call an appropriate one. Thus, the decision and its relation with reading constitute the central problem of the present research. A problem which, among others, tries to verify to what extent the deliberation could contribute to a safer reading within inferential processes that we do as well as the proper use, or not, of the decision can interfere in the most diverse ways of reading and the ethical implications involved in this process. So, it is attempted to identify the elements that constitute the deliberation; and check as the process of reading happens from the deliberation. Synthetically, these objectives, in their specificity, try to behold what implies the reading process. Such implications include cognitive, emotional, affective, and sensory aspects, just to mention a few. The analysis raises a concern about the written text, however other reading aspects are also under investigation. The research has a particularly bibliographic framework, nevertheless it presents exploratory elements. The development of the text presents itself structured at three different moments: a) the emergence of reading from admiration; reading triggered by human decision; the transition from orality to writing; the overcoming to the unwritten doctrines; the treatise as a genre adopted by Aristotle; reading as a result of human need to provide explanations to the world around us; Platonic thought in the "passage" from orality to writing; possible conceptualizations of reading; b) wherein lies the deliberation to Aristotle and its possible structuring; analysis of perception (aiãsqhsij); choice (proai/resij); desire (bou/lhsij); intelligence (su/nesij) and discernment (gnw/mh); the medium-term (meso/thj) and practical wisdom (fro/nhsij) as intellectual virtue (dianohtikh\ a)reth/) and the concept of Act (e)n/rgeia) and power (du/namij); c) how the deliberation works in the reading process; the relation of reading to the elements of the deliberation; reading as a saying of the said; reading as the updating of the writing; the actions and their consequent voluntary, involuntary and mixed interpretations that enable, among others, pragmatic and normative ways of doing a reading.