Plato versus Aristotle
The Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle were among the most importantand creative thinkers of the ancient world. Their treatises set forth mostof the important problems and concepts of Western philosophy, psychology,logic, and politics, and their influence has remained insightful fromancient to modern times. Although both Plato and Aristotle also wrote aboutpoetry and the arts, most scholars today spend most of their timediscussing other aspects of their discourses. However, in several of theirworks, including The Republic, Ion and Aristotle Poetics, these twophilosophers spent considerable time analyzing these topics concerned withaesthetics. Readily apparent, when reading their works, is their divergentviewpoints on the value of art in human society. For Plato, the key to regarding art, specifically poetry, lies in therelationship between the poem and its inspiration. The relationship of thepoem itself to the truth it endeavors to represent, as well as the processby which the poet creates art from inspiration, define the nature and thevalue of the poem. In The Republic, especially Book II and X, Platoaddresses poetry through the characterization of imitation. In his view,
Furthermore, Aristotle gives only one brief mention ofpoetic inspiration, and parenthetically at that: (Hence the composition ofpoetry is an affair of either the well-endowed or the manic individual; forof these two types the ones are impressionable while the others are liableto be 'possessed' from time to time). As artists imitate life to produce their literature, audiencesare inspired to copy in some way what they read or see on stage. The poet, he stresses, "must only tell plainstories of virtuous people. On the other hand, Aristotle in Poetics assumes a very divergentpremise, suggesting that imitation is a valuable instrument for projectingreality and truth since it deals with the experiences of life and is animportant extension of such experiences. " Why is Plato concerned if poetry is indeed divinely received' Becausethis takes poetry even further from present-day truths. Truth only exists in intellectual abstractions that are partof more real and concrete forms. As Gerald Else states,"Thus, whereas for Plato 'imitation' had been a self-defeating, sterileactivity, for Aristotle, it is a positive and fruitful one-within itsallowed limits. Human observations based on suchreflections, therefore, cannot be trusted. In Chapter 3, Aristotle suggeststhat tragedy "tends to imitate better than people, and comedy worse thanpeople, than the average. In short, art as an imitation isirrelevant to what is real. " It is indeed a healthy outlet foremotional release. For this philosopher, justice onlytakes place when there is harmonic stability within each individual's soulon a personal level and within a city on a larger-2-system. For Aristotle, this imitation or mimicry is far from being anegative. Historydeals with particulars, and therefore poetry is higher than history.
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