aesthetics of plato

8/6/2019 Aesthetics of Plato

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Platos (427-347 BC) View of Aesthetics from

theRepublic.

Platos (427-347 BC) View of Aesthetics from

theRepublic.

Plato is considered to be the father of& fiercest critic of aesthetics.

He is mainly concerned with theapplication of aesthetics, not offeringa systematic understanding of it in awell-ordered society.

Like Xenophanes, Heraclitus, &Socrates, in Platos earliest

dialogues:He distrusts art, poetry, and theatre;

Yet Plato a strong fascination with it,esp. poetry because of its power toarouse emotions.


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Platos View of Aesthetics from

theRepublic


theRepublic

If poets are not able to clearlyjustify inspiration, not knowinghow or what they create, they are

to be suspect because poetryevokes powerful emotions (cf.Lysias 214a1-2).

Yet, when it comes to the pleasure

of art, Plato is able to allow forinternal aesthetic principles,such as those of form,organization, and coherence(Phaedrus 268-9;Republic4.420c-d),esp. if it will contributeto a well-ordered society.


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theRepublic


theRepublic

A turning point occurs in Cratyluswhereby he focuses his questionsabout are on the concept of

mimesis (whose Greek sensesinclude imitation, representation,and dramatic enactment).

In essence, poetry, visual arts, &

music can be treated as analogousin their representational relation tothe world. This finds furtherdiscussion in the Republic, books2-3, and 10.


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Books 2-4:Books 2-4:

Books 2-4 presents a critique of false & harmful views whichpoets, especially Homer and other tragedians express, theninvites an insidious act of psychological identification on the

part of actor, hearer, or reader, esp. in view of education ofthe young.

But in doing so he constructed an aesthetic scheme andchallenge which judges art by a 3-fold criteria:

Truthfulness (he does not exclude fiction);

Ethical quality of content;

Psychological benefit.

The point: the underlying justification of art in life, both individuallyand collectively as a (and for) well-ordered society or city-state.


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Plato refuses to allow the pursuit of art to be self-

sufficient because of its power to enter the soul

and its ability to influence culture; the risk is toogreat to the city-state.

Consider the following quotes:


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Moreover, these stories [Greek myths &

heroes, demons, Hades] are harmful to

people who hear them, for everyone will be

ready to excuse himself when hes bad

For that reason, we must put a stop to such

stories, lest they produce in the youth a

strong inclination to do bad things. 3.391-

392.


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Then whats left is how to deal with stories about humanbeings, isnt it?...

Because I think well say that what poets and prose-writers tell us about the most important mattersconcerning human beings is bad. They say that manyunjust people are happy and many just ones arewretched, that injustice is profitable if it escapes

detection, and that justice is anothers good but onesown loss. I think well prohibit these stories and orderthe poets to compose the opposite kind of poetry and tellthe opposite kind of tales. Dont you think so?...


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Then well agree about what stories should be toldabout human beings only when weve discovered whatsort of thing justice is and how by nature it profits theone who has it, whether he is believed to be just or not.

We should now, I think, investigate their style, forwell then have fully investigated both what should besaid and how it should be said.

3.392a-c.


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Above all, they must guard as carefully as they can against anyinnovation in music and poetry or in physical training that iscounter to the established order. And they should dread to hear

anyone say:People care most for the song

That is newest from the singers lips.

Someone might praise such a saying, thinking that the poet meant

not new songs but new ways of singing. Such a thing shouldntbe praised, and the poet shouldnt be taken to have meant it, forthe guardians must beware of changing to a new form of music,since it threatens the whole system. As Damon says, and I amconvinced, the musical modes are never changed without change

in the most important of a citys laws. 4.424b-c.


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Arent these the reasons, Glaucon, that education in musicand poetry is most is most important? First, because rhythmand harmony permeates the inner part of the soul more than

anything else, affecting it most strongly and bringing it grace,so that if someone is properly educated in music and poetry, itmakes him graceful, but if not, then the opposite. Second,because anyone who has been properly educated in musicand poetry will sense it acutely when something has beenomitted from a thing and when it hasnt it been finely crafted orfinely made by nature. And since has the right distastes, hell

praise fine things, be pleased by them, receive them into hissoul, and being nurtured by them, become fine and good. Hellrightly object to what is shameful, hating it while hes stillyoung and unable to grasp the reason, but, having been

educated in this way, he will welcome reason when it comesand recognize it easily because of the its kinship with


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Consider this commentary on this

section of Platos Republic:



The modes and rhythms of music, and the

guardians physical training, all aim at producing

tough soldiers, experienced enough in intellectualculture not to treat the unarmed citizens savagely, but

not so softened by sweet food and music as to

become incapable of fighting the citys enemies.

Education unites their aesthetic taste with theirconscience.For Plato, education begins with the

inculcation of good habitsHe may insist that drama

corrupts the city by multiplying citizens tasks, but he

seemed more moved by the claim that mimicry


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Platos reader must not neglect this side of the

pedagogical theory, for it underwrites an

important aspect of his moral psychology.

Perfect virtue might work from the inside out,

with intellectual understanding of the good

coordinating ones actions in service to thegood, but virtue also works from the outside in,

which is to say that copying fine habits helps

to produce fine natures.


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Painting, furniture-making, architecture, and the other

crafts can issue an either graceful or malformed

productions (401a). The beautiful productions

dispose a soul toward virtue-reason and the virtues

themselves being beautiful-before that soul even has

the capacity to follow.

~ Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Plato and the Republic,

2nd

edition by Nicholas Pappas (London: Routledge, 1995), 72.


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Book 10:Book 10:

But then in Republic 10, Plato impugnsaesthetics with the problem of mirror

making or art qua mimesis, the creation ofmere appearances that fall short of evensensible reality, thus twice removed fromtranscendent truth (the plane of the forms).

Poetry, once again, has bewitching power toarouse emotions that are contrary to virtue.Therefore, aesthetics must be placed underpolitical control.


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Book 10:Book 10:

Like a painter, he [poet] produces works that is inferior withrespect to truth and that appeals to a part of the soul that issimilarly inferior rather than to the best part. So we were

right not to admit him into a city that is to be well-governed,for he arouses, nourishes, and strengthens this part of thesoul and so destroys the rational one, in just the way thatsomeone destroys the better sort of citizens when hestrengthens the vicious ones and surrenders the city tothem. Similarly, well say that an imitative poet puts a bad

constitution in the soul of each individual by making imagesthat are far removed from the truth and by gratifying theirrational part, which cannot distinguish the large and thesmall but believes that the same things are large at one timeand small at another


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Book 10:Book 10:

However, we havent yet brought about the mostserious charge against imitation, namely, that with afew rare exceptions it is able to corrupt even decentpeople, for thats surely an altogether terriblething.

An in the case of sex, anger, and all the desires,pleasures, and pains that we say accompany all our

actions, poetic imitation has the very same effect onus. It nurtures and waters them and establishesthem as rulers in us when they ought to wither andbe ruled, for that way well become better andhappier rather than worse and more wretched.


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Book 10:Book 10:

.If you admit the pleasure-giving Muse, whether in lyric orepic poetry, pleasure and pain will be kings in your cityinstead of law or the thing that everyone has always

believed to be best, namely, reason.

Nonetheless, if the poetry that aims at pleasure and imitationhas any argument to bring forward that proves it ought tohave a place in a well-governed city, we at least would beglad to admit it, for we are well aware of the charm itexercises.Therefore, isnt is just that such poetry shouldreturn from exile when it has successfully defended itself,whether in lyric or any other meter?

Republic X 605-607.


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Book 10:Book 10:

After his discussion of injustice in the soul and the

city he returns to his critique of poetry.

Pappas commentary states that every issue in

Book 10 reflects back on the Republics

psychological theory in Book 4 and on the

vindication of a life in which reason rules in Books

8-9. Therefore, given the fact that Plato defends

the life of reason, it becomes clearer why he now

returns to his discussion on aesthetics.


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Book 10:Book 10:

According to Pappas the general argument

against poetry is evident:

1. Poetry imitates appearance (595b-602c);

2. Poetry appeals to the worst parts of the

soul (602c-606d).

3. Poetry should be banned from the good city

(606e-608b).


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Book 10:Book 10:

Pappas offers this insight into Book 10:

Despite his conclusion, Platos interest lies not in

censorship but in the new discoveries he has made aboutpoetic imitation. He gives no argument for the steps from[2] to (3), considering it obvious that if he can show poetryto yield deleterious effects, he will have made the case forits abolition. (Free speech for views known to be harmfulhas no value for Plato- if anything, it reminds him of thelicentiousness of democracy.). The work consists inshowing where those effects come from. So he will firstargue that poetry is a phantom [1], then use [1] to exposeits psychological effects [2].


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Book 10:Book 10:

Book 10 contributes the following (595a-602c):

Artistic imitation is an imitation of appearance: Poetry imitates humans but in the ideal city it will

imitate only the best, the most virtuous of them.

Painting, the imitation of an appearance, is a

duplication of an object as opposed to the objectstrue nature.

Poetry and Paintings reveal the ignorance of theirmakers because they imitate humans or objectsbecause the imitate appearance only.

The imitator lacks both knowledge and justified belief.


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Book 10.602-607a: The Arousal of Unreason:Book 10.602-607a: The Arousal of Unreason:

Book 10 contributes the following regarding thearousal of unreason, Pappas offers the followingoutline (pg. 183 cf. 602c-603b):

1. Art imitates appearance and not reality.

2. Reality is the object of knowledge, perceivedby the rational part of the soul.

3. From premise 2, appearance without realityappeals to a non-rational part of the soul.

4. From premise 1 and premise 3, art appealsto the irrational in human beings.


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Book 10:Book 10:

Poets have a tendency to imitate the souls worse

impulses instead of its better ones (603c-605c).

Poetic imitation appeals to and encourages the

irrational impulses in the soul as witnessed in the

dramatic depictions of passions instead of the

sobering calculating agency of reason that reins in

those passions (604e-605a).


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Book 10.602-607a: The Arousal of Unreason:Book 10.602-607a: The Arousal of Unreason:

Imitative arts produce objects of low metaphysical status.

Aesthetic imitations are a concern for Plato because theyseduce people away from using their powers of calculation

unlike other objects. Something about the artistic image

keep people from asking rational questions.

Products of artistic imitation lure the audience with its

intoxicating enchantment. For example, the charm of poetry

is its rhythm, meter, and harmony.


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Book 10.605c-607aBook 10.605c-607a

Poetry leads it audience to privilege those parts ofthe souls that ought to be kept in a subservient

position (605c-607a). Why?

Desires lack awareness of their own insignificance;

Impulses that dont flow from reason will always makemistakes.

Subject desires to scrutiny, weighing each non-rationalmotivation against a philosophical evaluation of its worthand meaning.

Playwrights and actors shy away from perfect characters;

they thrive on imperfection (pg. 185).


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Book 10:Book 10:

Pappas states:

In his final argument, Socrates convicts the audience of poetry of

the same perverse preference (605-60a) [of desiring to arouse theemotions against the idealized character of the just]. For whateverreason, we let ourselves enjoy actions, passions, jokes., anddrives in a dramatic or fictional work that we would never toleratein our private lives. Such enjoyment amounts to privileging non-reason over reason, because every appeal to the emotions is a

seduction away from the use of reason. Emotions by themselvesare not bad; not can something like grief e suppressed entirely.But preferring an emotional response to a rational one is likeasking the army what its leaders ought to order it to do. And justas too many calls for votes in an army would weaken its officers

power, so too every indulgence of an irrational impulse leaves itstronger (606b-d; cf 444c, 589c-d). The enjoyment of poetry leads


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Concluding Observations:Concluding Observations:

At the beginning of our study poetry that is mimetic is to beexcluded but byBook 10 all poetry is indeed mimetic; onlyhymns to the gods and eulogies to good people Republic,

607a) are retained. So, except for above, he banishes poetryfrom his ideal society.

If poetry can satisfy philosophy by producing an argumentthat is beneficial to the community to the well-orderedsociety, then it can reclaim its place.


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Mimetic poetry has its greatest force on the human psyche,appealing to the non-rational aspect of people. Even theindividual who attains the Platonic ideal and is governed by

the noble, rational, good-seeking part of the soul, ispowerfully affective by the experience of myths and stories(Republic 605c).

We begin to value responses that appeal to our feelings andthis will no doubt corrode our quest for the good in real life.

Mimetic art falsely pretends to be knowledge but isdetrimental to the human mind; it enchantment to arouse thenon-rational is a huge concern because it displaces reason.


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We begin to value responses that appeal to our feelings andthis will no doubt corrode our quest for the good in real life.

Mimetic art falsely pretends to be knowledge but isdetrimental to the human mind.

Therefore, except for hymns to the gods and eulogies,

poetry is to be banished.


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Appendix: Hierarchy of Love-Objects:Appendix: Hierarchy of Love-Objects:

(5) Form of

Beauty Itself.

(4) Laws, customs,

& ideas;

(3) The Beauty of Souls;

(2) All beautiful bodies equally;

(1) The beautiful body of a

particular human beloved;


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Appendix on Beauty:Appendix on Beauty:

The highest form of love:

If someone got to see the Beautiful, absolute, pure,

unmixed, not polluted by human flesh or colors orany other great nonsense of mortalityonly thenwill it become possible for him to give birth not toimages of virtue (because hes in touch with no

images), but to true virtue (because he is in touchwith the true beauty).

~ Symposium, 211e-212a.


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Appendix on Beauty:Appendix on Beauty:

The result:

While the poet makes imitations and understandsimages, the philosopher who encounters theeternal, pure, and immutable Beauty, is able tobring genuine goods into the world because heunderstands what virtue really is.

Christopher Janaway, Plato in RoutledgeCompanion to Aesthetics, 12.


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Bibliography:Bibliography:

Plato: Complete Works, edited by John M. Cooper

(Indiana: Hacket Publishing, 1997).

Routledge Companion to Aesthetics, edited byBerys Gaut and Dominic McIver Lopes (London:

Routledge, 2001).

Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Plato and theRepublic, 2nd. Edition by Nickolas Pappas

(Routledge: London, 1995).

aesthetics of plato

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