Research about the Effect of Catharsis on the Audience of Tragedy, in Relation to Mulla Sandra’s Theory of Substantial Motion

Abstract

Every performance, despite the special elements it contains, aims to establish the best kind of communication with its audience and to challenge its different human aspects in a wide range of understanding and experience in the field of watching! The question is, how can this kind of encounter affect the human soul and act beyond what was imagined at the beginning of the drama? Catharsis is a concept that has been of interest in Western philosophy for a long time, a concept that was seriously proposed for the first time as a concrete matter by Aristotle in tragedy and subsequently in his dramatic works, entered the macro concepts of Western philosophy, and thinkers; From the past until today, they have presented various topics and approaches to explain it. Accordingly, one of the approaches that can be discussed and paid attention to this context is the substantial motion principle that is assigned to Mulla Sadra. According to him, the truth of the essence is the gradual occurrence, and this happens in the form of the gradual movement of the object from power to action. He considers the substantial motion to be a process based on unity of connection; In this sense, according to Mulla Sadra, the world with all its parts is in constant flux. But the main topic of the current article is whether catharsis can affect the essence of a person, cause him to move towards transcendence and enhance his dignity in the course of evolution that is taking place in time and space?

Keywords

• aristotle
• catharsis
• tragedy
• substantial motion