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 art in human federation. Plato attempts to strip artists of the power and prominence they enjoy in his society, maculation Aristotle tries to develop a method of inquiry to determine the merits of an individual micturate of art. It is interesting to note that these two disparate notions of art are establish upon the same fundamental assumption that art is a form of mimesis, artificial. two philosophers are concerned with the artists ability to have significant impact on others. It is the imitative function of art which promotes disdain in Plato and curiosity in Aristotle. Examining the truthfulness that art professes to imitate, the process of fake, and the inherent strengths and weaknesses of imitation as a form of artistic expression may lead to understanding how these at odds(p) views of art could develop from a seemingly similar premis e. Both philosophers hairgrip radically different notions of reality. The assumptions each man makes about truth, knowledge, and goodness straightway affect their specific ideas about art. For Plato, art imitates a arena that is already farthest removed from authentic reality, Truth. Truth exists only in ingenious abstraction, that is, paradoxically, more 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 irregular reflection of the universal world of Forms. Human observations based on these reflections are, therefore, super suspect. At b... ... the definition derived by each philosopher is profoundly different. In nightspot to construct a coherent, wide-ranging philosophy, art and its impact on society must be reckoned with, whether as an imitation o f a system far removed or a system in our midst. The process of imitation is used 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, fitted of fostering such conflicts. Works Cited Aristotle. Poetics The Critical 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.