What Did Plato Say About Poetry?

by | Last updated on January 24, 2024

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As a moralist,

Plato disapproves of 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.

What is the purpose of poetry according to Plato?

Function of Poetry

It should teach some morals. It should contribute to the knowledge. A poet should also be good teacher. Plato suggests

truth as the test of poetry

.

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.

Does Plato treat poetry seriously?

Plato is famous for having

banished poetry and poets

from the ideal city of the Republic. But he did no such thing. … He banished them because they produced the wrong sort of poetry.

What did Plato say about art and poetry?

In the Republic, Plato says

that art imitates the objects and events of ordinary life

. In other words, a work of art is a copy of a copy of a Form. … Socrates is puzzled by this; it seems to him that if Ion has an art, or skill, of reciting poetry he should be able to apply his skilled knowledge to other poets as well.

What does Socrates say about poetry?

According to Socrates, this imitative poetry

feeds the irrational desires that go against the best part in our soul

. Poetic imitation gives the necessary ground for irrational desires to rule the soul, which he believes is the greatest accusation against poetry (606d).

What is mimesis According to Plato?

For Plato mimesis is

the appearance of the external image of things

. In his view, reality was not to be found in the world of the objects but in the realm of the Ideas. Therefore, Plato sees in the arts an occupation that is inferior to science and philosophy, but that is also a potential source of corruption.

Why According to Plato poetry is not conducive to social morality?

According to Plato poetry does not contribute to the social morality as

the poet narrates the tales of the pleasant vices of the man

. As Gods and great heroes were represented as corrupt, hence for Plato their admiration by the poets could corrupt the young minds.

What did Plato say about art?

Plato, on this picture, believes that art perverts and corrupts: being

simply “imitation”

, it makes us attached to the wrong things – things of this world rather than eternal Forms – and depicts vile and immoral behavior on the part of the gods and humans as if it were normal or admirable.

In which form did Plato present his philosophy?

As Plato's solution is that universals are Forms and that Forms are real if anything is, Plato's philosophy is unambiguously called

Platonic realism

. According to Aristotle, Plato's best-known argument in support of the Forms was the “one over many” argument.

What did Plato say about Homer?

Plato agrees

that Homer is indeed the educator of Greece

, and immediately adds that Homer is “the most poetic and first of the tragic poets.” Plato is setting himself against what he takes to be the entire outlook—in contemporary but not Plato's parlance, the entire “philosophy of life”—he believes Homer and his …

What are the three areas of distinction between poetry according to Aristotle?

Artistotle identifies three aspects in which poetic genres can be distinguished from each other:

the medium through which they present their imitation, the objects of imitation, and the mode or manner of the imitation

.

What did Plato say about beauty?

According to Plato, Beauty was

an idea or Form of which beautiful things were consequence

. Beauty by comparison begins in the domain of intelligible objects, since there is a Form of beauty. The most important question is: what do all of these beautiful things have in common?. To know that is to know Beauty.

What is art According to Plato and Aristotle?

Plato and Aristotle spoke of

mimesis

as the re-presentation of nature. According to Plato, all artistic creation is a form of imitation: that which really exists (in the “world of ideas”) is a type created by God; the concrete things man perceives in his existence are shadowy representations of this ideal type.

What is Aesthetics According to Plato?

To the literal-minded the very phrase “Plato's aesthetics” refers to

an anachronism

, given that this area of philosophy only came to be identified in the last few centuries. … For the same reason they are uniquely situated to watch core concepts of aesthetics being defined: beauty, imitation, inspiration.

What Socrates said about music?



Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness, gaiety and life to everything; It is the essence of order and lends to all that is good, just, and beautiful

.”

Amira Khan
Author
Amira Khan
Amira Khan is a philosopher and scholar of religion with a Ph.D. in philosophy and theology. Amira's expertise includes the history of philosophy and religion, ethics, and the philosophy of science. She is passionate about helping readers navigate complex philosophical and religious concepts in a clear and accessible way.