Poiesis (ποίησις) — “making,” “production,” “creation”: the act of bringing into existence something that did not exist before. The term derives from the Greek verb poiein, “to make” or “to produce,” and lies at the root of the word “poetry,” since the poet was originally a “maker” of verses. In a broad sense it covers any activity that leads a thing from non-being into being, as Plato observes in the Symposium, where poiesis is defined as any cause that brings something into existence. In Aristotle the concept takes on technical contours: poiesis is productive activity whose end (the work produced) lies outside the activity itself — the architect builds houses, the cobbler makes shoes, the physician restores health. It is therefore distinguished from praxis, action that has its end within itself (acting well, living well), and from theoria, the contemplation of necessary truths. Poiesis is governed by technē, the know-how that grasps the causes and the proper means of producing. In the twentieth century, Heidegger recovers the term and makes it central: originary poiesis is a Hervorbringen, a “bringing-forth into presence,” a mode of unconcealment (alḗtheia) by which something comes to light and shows itself. On this reading, the artwork and the artisan’s craft preserve the productive, revealing sense of poiesis, whereas modern technology degrades it, reducing nature to a mere available resource. The concept is thus bound up with praxis, technē, and theoria.
← Glossary