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Plato had a love-hate relationship with the arts. On the other hand, he found the arts threatening. He proposed sending the poets and playwrights out of his ideal Republic, or at least censoring what they wrote; and he wanted music and painting severely censored. The arts, he thought, are powerful shapers of character.
Does Plato believe that poets are creative and talented individuals?
Plato believed that great souls and creative talents produce “offspring” which can be enjoyed by others: wisdom, virtue, poetry, art, temperance, justice, and the law (340s BC) —wisdom and virtue in general. And such creators are poets and all artists who are deserving of the name inventor.
What are Plato’s objection to poetry?
As a moralist, Plato disapproves of poetry because it is immoral, as a philosopher he disapproves of it because it is based in falsehood. He is of the view that philosophy is better than poetry because philosopher deals with idea / truth, whereas poet deals with what appears to him / illusion.
Why does Plato not like art?
Plato had two theories of art. According to this theory, since art imitates physical things, which in turn imitate the Forms, art is always a copy of a copy, and leads us even further from truth and toward illusion. For this reason, as well as because of its power to stir the emotions, art is dangerous.
What did Plato say about beauty?
In the view of Plato (427-347 BCE), beauty resides in his domain of the Forms. Beauty is objective, it is not about the experience of the observer. Plato’s conception of “objectivity” is atypical. The world of Forms is “ideal” rather than material; Forms, and beauty, are non-physical ideas for Plato.
What are Plato’s arguments against poetry?
Plato had distrusted poetic imitation because it represented particulars, and not general statements of truth; because mimesis works differently for Aristotle, it can repre- sent those general statements.
Who answers to Plato’s objection to poetry?
Aristotle replied to the charges made by his Guru Plato against poetry in particular and art in general. He replied to them one by one in his defence of poetry.
What form did Plato use to write down his ideas?
3. Dialogue, setting, character. There is another feature of Plato’s writings that makes him distinctive among the great philosophers and colors our experience of him as an author. Nearly everything he wrote takes the form of a dialogue.
How do Plato and Aristotle’s ideas about art differ?
While Plato condemns art because it is in effect a copy of a copy – since reality is imitation of the Forms and art is then imitation of reality – Aristotle defends art by saying that in the appreciation of art the viewer receives a certain “cognitive value” from the experience (Stumpf, p 99).
What is the philosophical perspective of Plato?
In metaphysics Plato envisioned a systematic, rational treatment of the forms and their interrelations, starting with the most fundamental among them (the Good, or the One); in ethics and moral psychology he developed the view that the good life requires not just a certain kind of knowledge (as Socrates had suggested).
Why does Plato believe that beauty is truth and truth beauty?
For Plato, then, Beauty and Truth are virtues, which descend from the Good, and thus belong within the realm of the forms. The forms are objects of Knowledge where Beauty and Truth are contained. As virtues Beauty and Truth are derived from the Good. The Good transcends all being and is that which begets the forms.
How do philosophers think about beauty?
Philosophers have not agreed on whether beauty is subjective or objective (big surprise). The ancient greats, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Plotinus all agreed that beauty was primarily objective—beautiful things really are beautiful regardless of what one or another individual may think or feel (Sartwell, 2016).
Did Plato say beauty is in the eye of the beholder?
Plato says it right when he says that “Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder” because the sense of beauty is itself transient in nature. So, a thing beautiful for one might not be beautiful for the other.
Why did Plato banished poetry?
Plato is famous for having banished poetry and poets from the ideal city of the Republic. He banished them because they produced the wrong sort of poetry. To rebut Plato’s critique of poetry, what is needed is not a defence of poetry, but a defence of the freedom of poets to write as, and what, they wish.
What is the final charge against poetry and what did Plato do?
So when he examines poetry his tool is rather moral and not aesthetic. He confused aesthetics with morality and ultimately concluded poetry as immoral and imitative in nature. Plato’s charges against poetry: Poet’s inspiration- The poet writes not because he has thought long over but because he is inspired.
Why did Plato dislike rhetoric?
Plato further criticized the type of rhetoric art taught by the Sophists. He argued that they were “knacks” rather than “the true art”. He stated that the sophist artists applied and taught skills found in nature rather than teaching artistic knowledge based on research.
Why did Plato rejected literature?
In his theory of Mimesis, Plato says that all art is mimetic by nature; art is an imitation of life. He believed that ‘idea’ is the ultimate reality. Art imitates idea and so it is imitation of reality. Plato rejected poetry as it is mimetic in nature on the moral and philosophical grounds.
How does Aristotle successfully defend poetry against the criticisms laid by Plato?
Plato condemned poetry on moral, intellectual and emotional grounds. Aristotle takes up the objections of Plato one by one, and justifies poetry morally, emotionally and intellectually. He is the first to use the term Katharsis in connection with tragedy, and this part of the Poetics is highly original and moving.
Who said that art is twice removed from reality?
Hence, he believed that art is twice removed from reality. He gives first importance to philosophy as philosophy deals with the ideas whereas poetry deals with illusion – things which are twice removed from reality. So to Plato, philosophy is superior to poetry.
