Introduction to Plato’s Aesthetics

 

Plato has discussed on art with relation to his ideal city ‘Republic’. This ideal city does not contain art. According to him, poetics are the imitation of appearance. That imitation is far beyond the truth. That means art pervades and corrupts the soul. Therefore, he suggests banning art from his ideal city. He ‘purges poetry in the book 2 and 3; then he returns to this purge in the book 10 by explaining  in detail what is wrong with the poetry that he eliminated’ (Kraut, 1992, p. 347). Once he has mentioned in the book 3 of the Republic that if a person, who is trained to imitate things, comes to the republic, then the people in the republic should tell him that there are no such people like him in the republic and they should ask him to go to another city. 

It should be mentioned that poetry, sculpture and painting (imitative arts).  Although he banished artists from the republic, he did not banish them (artists like Homer, Aeschylus) because they were poets. But they produced artistic works that could ruin the values of his ideal city. 

Although it says that Plato has banished artists from his republic, actually he has removed only the wrong type of poetry. According to him, imitative arts are capable of change one’s behavior. For that, he suggested it to be a part of the education. Nevertheless, it should be strictly censored to make sure that it does not produce the wrong type of poetry. 

Plato was the person who first coined the term imitation. The main difference between Aristotle and Plato on imitation is that Plato defines imitation as an ‘imitation of imitation’. Plato first coined the term ‘imitation’ (mimesis). According to him, a work of art is an imitation of imitation. He has combined his views on art and aesthetics with his epistemology (with Forms). This can be described through the Socrates’ metaphor of the 3 beds. They can be summarized as follows. 

-One bed exists in the idea which was made by the God (Form)

-Second bed is made by the carpenter (carpenter has been an imitator as he imitates the God’s idea)

-Third bed is made by the artist by using the carpenter’s imitation

Here, the truth has removed twice. That means Plato has defined art as ‘an imitation of imitation’. First, the craftsmen imitates the Form. Then the artist imitates what the craftsperson has created by using raw materials.  The artistic work is therefore removed further from the reality (Form).