> whereby the body is restored to health and balance, through the power of music and art to purge pathological excesses of certain emotions which he considered 'base'.
>
> Of course, given the 4th century culture that he lived in, the kind of pathological excesses which Aristotle considered "base and weak" were emotions like pity, mercy, and fear. One could say that he approved of certain aesthetics, such as tragedy and the comedic arts, to be useful in concentrating and purging these "spurious sentiments" from the body... that is, to be helpful in excreting pity and mercy away from the flesh,
>

*Bzzzzzzzt! I was WRONG! Correction. You people taking History must be slacking off -- Aristotle was born in 384 BC, and died in 322 BC, so he was never a citizen of A.D. times.

The 4th century AD was a completely different world... Let's see, the seat of the Roman Empire was moved to Constantinople; the Huns invaded Europe, and the Goths were divided among themselves; and by 381 AD the early Christian church was still debating the decisions of the First Ecumenical Council. Actually, the later quarter of the 4th century is remembered primarily for its milestones in the history of Christian thought.

In fact, 382 AD sticks in my mind as the first time, at the Council of Rome, that the books of the New Testament were accepted as canon (St. Augustine personally campaigned to have the same NT list that we have today). Before then, it was hotly debated as to whether various New Testament writings should even be considered "Scripture" and "God-breathed," since the reference in 2 Timothy 3:16 referred purely to the Old Testament -- no one was yet certain which NT books were clearly inspired from God; they had to rely on the careful guidance of his Holy Spirit as it moved in the world. I wouldn't mind knowing how they finally determined which books were canonical Scripture, and which weren't.

Wolf "384 BC to 384 AD -- a lot can happen in 768 years" spirit