The Perspective of Plato and Aristotle on the Value of Art Essays

The Perspective of Plato and Aristotle on the Value of Art As literary critics, Plato and Aristotle disagree profoundly about the value of contrivance in gentle society. Plato attempts to strip artists of the power and prominence they enjoy in his society, while Aristotle tries to burst a method of inquiry to determine the merits of an individual work of art. It is fire to note that these two disparate notions of art are based upon the analogous fundamental assumption that art is a fake of mimesis, imitation. Both philosophers are concerned with the artists ability to have significant impact on others. It is the mimic function of art which promotes disdain in Plato and curiosity in Aristotle. Examining the truth that art professes to imitate, the process of imitation, and the inherent strengths and weaknesses of imitation as a form of artistic expression may lead to understanding how these conflicting views of art could develop from a seemingly similar premise. Both philoso phers hold radically different notions of authoritativeity. The assumptions each man makes about truth, knowledge, and goodness directly collide with their specific ideas about art. For Plato, art imitates a world that is already farthest upstage from authentic reality, Truth. Truth exists only in intellectual abstraction, that is, paradoxically, much real than concrete objects. The universal essence, the Idea, the Form of a thing, is more real and thus more important than its physical substance. The physical world, the world of appearances experienced through the senses, does not harbor reality. This tangible world is an imperfect formula of the universal world of Forms. Human observations based on these reflections are, therefore, highly suspect. At b... ... the definition derived by each philosopher is profoundly different. In order to make a coherent, wide-ranging philosophy, art and its impact on society must(prenominal) be reckoned with, whether as an imitation of a sy stem far removed or a system in our midst. The process of imitation is use in both cases to promote the particular version of reality espoused by each man. While such a study is beneficial in tracing the philosophical conflict regarding the usage and importance of imitation in art, what is most apparent, perhaps, is the discovery that language itself is an imperfect imitation of meaning, capable of lift such conflicts. Works Cited Aristotle. Poetics The life-sustaining Tradition. Ed., David H. Richter, New York St. Martins Press, 1989. Plato. Republic, Book X The Critical Tradition. Ed., David H. Richter, New York St. Martins Press, 1989.