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8/11/2019 platosobjectionandaristotlesrefutation-130730122624-phpapp02

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Platos Objection toPoetry

&

Aristotles Defence:Theory of Mimesis

Department of English

M.K. Bhavnagar University

[email protected]


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Platos valuable contribution to

the study of art and literature

Platos theory of Mimesis (imitation): The arts

deal with illusion or they are imitation of an

imitation. Twice removed from reality.

He was the firstwho inquired into the nature

of imaginative literature and put forward

theories which are both illuminating and

provocative.

He was poetdialogues full of poetic beauty

(dramatic quality).


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Platothe philosopher

As a moralistPlato disapproves of poetry becauseit is immoral, as a philosopherhe disapproves of

it because it is based in falsehood.

Philosophy is better than poetry becausephilosopher deals with idea / truth, whereas poet

deals with what appears to him / illusion.

He believed that truthof philosophy was more

important than the pleasureof poetry.


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Platos chief interest was Philosophical

investigations which form the subject of hisgreat works in form of Dialogues.

He was not a professed critic of literature and

his critical observations are not found in anysingle book. They lie scattered in seven of his

dialogues, more particularly in The Ion, The

Symposium, The Republic and the Laws.


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Arttwice removed from realityillusion! According to him all arts are imitative or mimetic in

nature. He wrote in The Republic that ideas are theultimate reality. Things are conceived as ideas before theytake practical shapes. So, idea is original and the thing iscopy of that idea. Carpenterschair is the result of the ideaof chair in his mind.

Thus, the chair is once removed from reality. But painterschair is imitation of carpenters chair. So it is twiceremoved form reality. Thus artist/poet takes man awayfrom reality rather than towards it. Thus artist deals inillusion.


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Plato's threemain objections:

Plato's threemain objections to poetry

are that

poetry is not ethical, philosophicalandpragmatic, in other words,

he objected to poetry from the point of view of

Education,

from philosophical point of view and

from moral point of view.


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Why?

It is not ethical because it promotes

undesirable passions

It is not philosophical because it does not

provide true knowledge and,

It is not pragmatic because it is inferior to the

practical arts and therefore has no

educational value.


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His objections

ifwe mean our future guardians to regard the habit

of quarreling among themselves as of all things thebasest, no word should be said to them of the warsin the heaven, or of the plots and fighting of the godsagainst one another, for they are not true.

If they would only believe as we would tell them thatquarreling is unholy, and that never up to this timehas there been any quarreling between citizensthese tales (of epics) must not be admitted into our

State, whether they are supposed to have allegoricalmeaning or not.

Thus he objected on the ground that poetry does notcultivate good habits among children


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His objections

The imitator or maker of the image knows

nothing of true existence; he knows

appearance only .

The imitative art is an inferior who marries an

inferior and has inferior offspring.


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Plato felt that poetry, like all forms of art, appealsto the inferior part of the soul, the irrational,emotional cowardly part. The reader of poetry is

seduced into feeling undesirable emotions. To Plato, an appreciation of poetry is

incompatible with an appreciation of reason,justice, and the search for Truth.

In the Ion, he suggests that poetry causesneedless lamentation and ecstasies at theimaginary events of sorrow and happiness.

It numbs the faculty of reason for the time being,

paralyses the balanced thought and encouragesthe weaker part of soul constituted of the baserimpulses. Hence poetry has no healthy function,and it cannot be called good.


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Plato

To him drama is the most dangerous form of

literature because the author is imitating

things that he/she does not understand.

Plato seemingly feels that no words are strong

enough to condemn drama.

Plato felt that all the world's evils derived

from one source: a faulty understanding of

reality.


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Aristotle

The nature of poetry: Poetic inspiration:

Theory of Inspiration:

Aristotle agrees with Plato in calling the poet an

imitator and creative art, imitation. He imitates

one of the three objectsthings as they were/are,things as they are said/thought to be or things as

they ought to be.

In other words, he imitates what is past or

present, what is commonly believed and what is

ideal.


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Aristotle He does not agree with his teacher inpoets imitation

is twice removed from reality and hence unreal/illusion

of truth.

To prove his point he compares poetry with history. The

poet and the historian differ not by their medium, but

the true difference is that the historian relates what hashappened?, the poet, what may/ought to have

happened?- the ideal.

Poetry, therefore, is more philosophical and a higher

thing than the history, which expresses the particular,

while poetry tends to express the universal. Therefore,

the picture of poetry pleases all and at all times.


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Aristotle Aristotle does not agree with Plato in function of

poetry to make people weaker and emotional/toosentimental. For him, catharsis is ennobling and

humbles human being.

So far as moral nature of poetry is concerned,

Aristotle believed that the end of poetry is to

please; however, teaching may be given. Such

pleasing is superior to the other pleasure

because it teaches civic morality. Therefore, allgood literature gives pleasure that is not

divorced from moral lessons.


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Platos objection refuted: Plato says that art being the imitation of the

actual is removed from truth. It only gives thelikeness of a thing in concrete, and the likeness isalways less than real.

But Plato fails to understand that art also give

something more which is absent in the actual.

The artist does not simply reflect the real in themanner of a mirror.

Art is not slavish imitation of reality. Literature isnot the photographic reproduction of life in all itstotality.


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Platos objection refuted:

R.A.Scott-James rightly observes:But though he (Poet) creates something

less than that reality, he also creates

something more. He puts an idea into it.He put his perception into it. He gives us

his intuition of certain distinctive and

essential qualities.


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Platos objection refuted: Plato, again says that art is bad because it does

not inspire virtue, does not teach morality. But is teaching the function of the art? Is it the

aim of the artist?

The function of art is to provide aesthetic delight,communicate experience, express emotions andrepresent life. It should never be confused withthe function of ethics which is simply to teach

morality. If an artist succeeds in pleasing us in aesthetic

sense, he is a good artist. If he fails in doing so, heis a bad artist.


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Platos objection refuted: R.A.Scott-James observes:

Morality teaches. Art does not attempt to teach.It merely asserts it is thus or thus that life is

perceived to be. That is my bit of reality, says the

artist. Take it or leave it draw any lessons youlike from it that is my account of things as theyare if it has any value to you as evidence orteaching, use it, but that is not my business: I

have given you my rendering, my account, myvision, my dream, my illusion call it what youwill. If there is any lesson in it, it is yours to draw,not mine to preach.


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Similarly, Platos charge that needless

lamentations and ecstasies at the imaginary

events of sorrow and happiness encouragesweaker part of soul and numbs faculty of reason.

This charge is defended by Aristotle in his Theory

of Katharsis. David Daiches summarizes Aristotles views in

reply to Platos charges in brief: Tragedy (Art)

gives new knowledge, yields aestheticsatisfaction and produces a better state of mind.

C l i


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Conclusion: Plato judges poetry now from the educational standpoint, now

from the philosophical one and then from the ethical one.

But he does not care to consider it from its own uniquestandpoint. He does not define its aims.

He forgets that every thing should be judged in terms of its

own aimsand objective its own criteria of merit and demerit.

We cannot fairly maintain that music is bad because it does notpaint, or that painting is bad because it does not sing.

Similarly, we cannot say that poetry is bad because it does not

teach philosophy of ethics. If poetry, philosophy and ethics had

identical function, how could they be different subjects?

To denounce poetry because it is not philosophy or ideal is

clearly absurd.

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