Plato

Question 1

What are the arguments in regards to Plato being an enemy of art? (For, For, Against, Objection, Rebuttal)

Answer 1

• The republic
• Ion
• The republic
• Propaganda?
• Art for Plato

Question 2

What does the republic state that makes Plato an enemy of art? (Two points)

Answer 2

• Poets corrupt and influence the masses through their appeal to their emotional side.
• Critical of mimesis, arguing that poets misrepresented reality.

Question 3

Why were the poets so influential according to Plato?

Answer 3

They were seen as being inspired by gods.

Question 4

What is mimesis?

Answer 4

It is a vague interpretation of imitation.

Question 5

Why does Plato believe that peots misrepresented reality?

Answer 5

As the world was already once removed from reality due to it being simply shadows of the realm of the forms, an imitation of the shadows is further shadows, two times removes from reality.

Question 6

What does the Ion imply for Plato to be an enemy of art? (Two points)

Answer 6

• Due to the poets being inpired and possessed by in what they do, he claimed that they didn’t actually know what they were talking about.
• The example of the magnetic rock shows what Plato means.

Question 7

Why was Plato not an enemy of art?

Answer 7

He was actually criticising the art of his time, and the moral decay occurring.

Question 8

What does Plato state about beauty and the good? (Two points)

Answer 8

• He claims that the beauty is the good, which is the ultimate Form.
• He thus states that artists in the pursuit of the beautiful are in the pursuit of the ultimate Form.

Question 9

What does the republic state that implies Plato not being an enemy of art? (Two points)

Answer 9

• He saw art which was politically correct and advocated for the state to be of great value due to its influence on people.
• The lawgivers can give the peotic correct beliefs so that it isn’t completely devoid of knowledge.

Question 10

What is the objection to the republic implying that Plato is not an enemy of art?

Answer 10

Would you not consider what he advocated for as simply being propaganda?

Question 11

What is a possible response against the propaganda criticism?

Answer 11

Plato viewed beauty and morality as being interlinked, therefore, for him, it would be a contradiction to have beautiful art that was not moral.