What Is the the Value of Art According to Plato
Throughout the ages philosophers have wrestled with the notion of art at every possible level. From Plato to Marx, Aristotle to Hume, Kant to Danto, history'due south corking minds have theorized most the nature of art, testing the depths of human agreement. With art i can easily find discussion delving into ontology, epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, folklore, psychology, and even politics without fifty-fifty scratching the tip of the iceberg. Yet even with the enormous breadth of conceptions of art on which to meditate philosophers and theorists take concocted numerous opposing view points which have helped to shape and focus each other throughout the centuries. This paper will focus on the detail theories of i of the first nifty thinkers to tackle the enigmatic nature of art; Aristotle. While Aristotle did not have the vast wealth of art theory to respond to that later philosophers would accept, he did immediately follow the first and one of most emphatic philosophers to comment on the nature of art; Plato. Every bit was often the instance with ancient philosophers, both Plato and Aristotle were forced to establish a theory of art based heavily on their metaphysical views most the nature of the world. It will be shown afterward, in contrast to Aristotle, that many thinkers, such equally Kant, Hume and Freud developed theories of art grounded in their aesthetic, sociopolitical, and psychological theories. Finally, in order to exemplify the conceptions of fine art examined in the showtime office of the paper, two pieces of art from a genre which Aristotle was most passionate about will be examined critically in order to run across how specific artwork tin fit into the complex framework of philosophical theory. In keeping with the ancient Greek traditions of art Sophocles' two tragedies, Oedipus the Male monarch and Antigone, will be investigated.
In order to empathise Aristotle's perspective on art it is important to first have a moderate understanding of Aristotle's metaphysics. However, since Aristotle'southward metaphysics tin can best be understood as a response to the theories of his instructor we must start take a expect at Plato's theories of the nature of the universe. Plato believed that all things that exist in reality are mere representations of perfect metaphysical constructs which he chosen the Forms. This doctrine which permeates through all of Plato'southward philosophy reveals several important issues with the nature of art which shall be examined in response to Aristotle's theories. Aristotle, in opposition to Plato adult a metaphysics which was grounded much more in the real world. For Aristotle the notion of grade was really a part of all matter and the distinction betwixt the form and the actual substance that fabricated up an object was merely an intellectual one. This bears a relation to art because for both Plato and Aristotle art is an imitation of the bodily world (Palmer, pp 447-452). The two thinkers notwithstanding, interpret the nature of this simulated in opposing manners. While Plato condemns art considering it is in effect a copy of a copy - since reality is imitation of the Forms and art is then imitation of reality - Aristotle defends art by saying that in the appreciation of art the viewer receives a certain "cognitive value" from the experience (Stumpf, p 99). This is to say that through the perception of fine art 1 gains a sure agreement almost the nature of reality. This brings u.s. to the question of the epistemological concerns relating to art.
For Plato, since art is an imitation of an false information technology is in effect iii times removed from the truth. Equally a result, Plato interprets this to mean that art cannot give the viewer any real knowledge nearly the world (Palmer, p 438). Aristotle's objection to this can be virtually easily seen in his favor for verse and drama. While Plato would argue that we can obtain no truth from the study of art, Aristotle would say that art really theorizes a great deal almost what is possible in human society. His famous example compares poetry to the study of history. Aristotle argues that history is but concerned with specific instances while poetry deals with "basic human, and therefore universal, experience." Aristotle reasons that "poetry … is a more philosophical and higher thing than history: for poetry tends to express the universal, history the particular" (Stumpf, p 99).
Plato'south last objection to art which Aristotle responds to is a merits of a moral nature. Plato argued that fine art appeals to the passions which tin be wild and unsafe. Aristotle, unlike Plato, believed that while fine art does appeal to the more unruly side of humanity, the encouragement of these animalistic characteristics is beneficial to gild because through experiencing fine art, particularly tragedy, the people would feel a catharsis, or a purgation, which would rid them of their dangerous emotions (Palmer, p 450). This result of purgation is the first case where parallels tin can exist drawn between Aristotelian theories of art and a more modern realm; that of psychoanalysis. Surprisingly, Sigmund Freud would hold with Plato's moral objection to art. According to Freud, fine art is used past both artists and art viewers akin as a form of escapism. Like Plato, Freud would debate that indulgence in art is alike to removing oneself from reality. He would suggest that art "has the result, and therefore probably the purpose, of forcing the patient out of real life, of alienating him from actuality" (Palmer, p 446).
Another aspect of fine art that Aristotle commented on was its sociopolitical connotations. It is in this area that nosotros can find connections between the theories of Aristotle and Karl Marx. Aristotle believed that order could be broken upwards into two groups. Members of the kickoff group were "complimentary and educated," while the second group was "fabricated up of mechanics and full general laborers and other such people." He described the latter grouping every bit existence vulgar and "perverted from their natural state." In this way art provided an efficient manner of "pacifying the masses" (Palmer, p 451). There are clear similarities in Aristotle'south theories with those of Marx'due south socioeconomic view about the nature of art. On a Marxist estimation art is just another way in which the wealthy upper class can oppress the proletariat through pacification (Palmer, p 458).
The concluding concept of art that should be investigated, earlier moving on to Aristotle'due south interest in tragedy, is his ideas of beauty and taste. Though it is difficult to find concise references to beauty in the Aristotelian texts he does seem to support the notion of an objective dazzler. That is to say that in that location are sure universal characteristics which a work of art must accept in order to be beautiful. From his periodic reference to mathematics in relation to beautiful objects it is often extrapolated that Aristotle believed there to exist a certain gild to beauty. In the Metaphysics he says that "the chief forms of beauty are order and symmetry and definiteness." (Copleston, p 359). Empiricist David Hume had a very dissimilar thought of what could classify as cute or equally good art. Co-ordinate to Hume the criterion for good art was completely subjective. On his theory there are certain educated members of society who "he felt, somewhen [would] reach consensus, and in doing and then, [would] set a 'standard of taste' which [would be] universal" (Freeland, p 9). Immanuel Kant, on the other mitt, had a formulation of dazzler which, though it did non completely coincide with Aristotle's criterion, was at least in a similar spirit. At this point a handling of Kant's metaphysics would be helpful, simply for the sake of brevity a consummate i will not be given. Kant believed that reality consisted of two worlds: the neuminal earth and the phenomenal globe. Think of the neuminal world every bit a world containing only essences of individuals. In the neuminal globe there is no space, no time, no substance, none of the normal paradigms which we acquaintance with reality. The phenomenal world and so is the fashion that we interpret the neuminal world through a set of Categories which we take built into our psyches. These Categories let one to conceive of fourth dimension, space, and certain enough, beauty (Silverstein). For Kant then, beauty is not something which is completely objective since our perception of beauty is office of our mind. It does, however, have a certain level of universality to it which gives it a much more objective status than that of Hume's taste-arbiters.
Now that the reader has a off-white thought of Aristotle's conceptions of fine art and some of the supporting and opposing viewpoints of his fellow philosophers it is fourth dimension to consider the particular genre of art known as tragedy, which Aristotle was and then addicted of. He defined tragedy every bit "the imitation of an action that is serious … with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to reach its catharsis of such emotions" (Copleston, p 363). Observe the use of the word "imitation" in the definition. Recall that Aristotle thought that by imitation of action one could get insight into the nature of the universe. Likewise, recall that for Aristotle ane of the primary objectives of art was to induce a purgation which would rid the citizens of their less pleasurable emotions. For Aristotle, a successful tragedy would be i in which the main character was neither also virtuous nor likewise villainous. The plot should start out well for the chief character and and then through no more than fault of his own, other than a possible mistake in judgment, he should come up to a demise which instills feelings of pity, sadness, and anger in the gallery thereby inducing catharsis.
Aristotle's favorite tragedy was Oedipus the King by Sophocles. The play begins with the Laius and Jocasta, the king and queen of Thebes. Upon the birth of their son, Oedipus, an oracle proclaims that he will kill his begetter and ally his mother. Petrified the male monarch and queen abandon their son to die in the wilderness, merely he is picked up and cared for past a shepherd. The shepherd takes Oedipus to the boondocks of Corinth where he is adopted by the king and queen. 1 day when Oedipus is grown he learns that he has been adopted and goes to an oracle in search of answers. Instead the oracle tells him the prophecy that he will kill his father and marry his female parent. Not believing that he was truly adopted Oedipus leaves Corinth and then as to avoid killing who he thinks is his father and marrying who he thinks is his mother. At an intersection in the road he gets into a scuffle with a group from Thebes and ends upwardly killing King Laius who was traveling in disguise. Not knowing what he has done he continues on to Thebes and eventually ends up marrying Queen Jocasta and becoming the male monarch. He rules well and he and Jocasta end upwards having four children together. Then one day a soothsayer reveals to them the truth of their situation and Jocasta commits suicide. Meanwhile Oedipus gouges out his optics and banishes himself from Thebes, destined to become a wandering ragamuffin.
For Aristotle, Oedipus the King is the perfect tragedy. Information technology has a worthy main grapheme and a complicated plot. Through a sequence of coincidences and unforeseeable events Oedipus is reduced to a pitiful end considering he committed a horrible deed without knowing information technology. The ability for such an unavoidable mistake to crusade such catastrophe is meant to illustrate the frailty of the human life. Since the drama "shows how a practiced person confronts adversity, it elicits a cleansing … through emotions of fear and pity" (Freeland, p 32). Eventually, after many years of wandering the state as a blind beggar, Oedipus attains sort of a saintly stature in the eyes of his fellow Greeks. On Aristotle's more full general conception of fine art Oedipus has worth as an imitation of what could conceivably happen to anyone in the Greek society.
The third tragedy in the Sophocles' Oedipus trilogy is called Antigone. The setting is a few decades after the tragic downfall of Oedipus in the midst of the Thebean civil state of war. The two sons of Oedipus, Polyneices and Eteocles, have been killed in battle and Creon assumes the thrown of Thebes. In order to insult his opponents Creon orders that Eteocles be buried honorably but that Polyneices exist left on the battleground to rot. Oedipus' two daughters, Antigone and Ismene, plot to disobey Creon and bury their blood brother Polyneices. Under the threat of death Ismene decides not to aid her sister in the chore. After burial her blood brother Antigone is captured and brought earlier Creon to face judgment. Though Antigone proclaims her sister innocent Creon imprisons the pair of them. Haemon, Antigone'due south fiancé and Creon's son comes to show his back up to his father while at the aforementioned fourth dimension beg him to spare his helpmate. Creon refuses and Haemon vows never to see him again. Though he does decide to spare Ismene, Creon orders that Antigone be locked up in a cave forever. Along comes the blind soothsayer Teiresias who warns Creon that the gods wish him to release Antigone and bury Polyneices torso or else they will accept away i of his children and all of Greece will turn confronting him and Thebes. Frightened Creon agrees to release her, but alas information technology is too tardily. A messenger arrives and tells him that Haemon and Antigone accept both committed suicide and presently after Creon'south wife also takes her own life. Broken by self-blame the drama ends with Creon slinking back into his home and the chorus offering an exclamation that the gods punish the proud but the lessons learned will brand the punished wise.
Antigone was another of Aristotle'southward favorite tragedies. Sophocles was the tertiary tragic playwright who revolutionized drama in Greece with his add-on of more than main characters and a lesser presence of the chorus. Earlier Aeschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles at that place would accept only been one character in the play and a big chorus. The chorus would be so agile in the story that plays were more than similar narratives than bodily dramas. The audience might have been surprised at the end to find out that the main tragic character in Antigone was non Antigone herself, only rather it was Creon. This drama illustrates the 2nd way in which a tragic character tin can achieve his downfall. In the case of the kickoff play in the trilogy Oedipus suffered from a hamartia; a tragic error rather than an evil intent (Freeland, p 34). In Creon's case his tragic flaw is an example of hubris; an overbearing pride or airs. In the end the audition certainly feels pity for Creon and experiences catharsis, since it was really more of a incomprehension than a malicious intent that acquired him to make the decisions that resulted in the loss of his entire family. As art this tragedy certainly fulfills its duties in Aristotle's optics.
As has been illustrated Aristotle had a very concise idea of the nature and the purpose of art, particularly as it relates to tragedy and drama. While many of the philosophers who came before and after Aristotle had opposing philosophies of art one cannot deny that his theories made very skilful sense in his historical context and many of them still have some merit today. If ane steps back and attempts to look at philosophy of fine art as a whole over the centuries i cannot deny that the practical merit that his theories contained and cannot assist just be impressed at how early they came in the history of philosophy of art.
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by Christian Ketelsen
Major: Mathematics and Philosophy Expected
Graduation Date August, 2003
Hometown Boxing Ground, WA
Before becoming a math major I spent 2 semesters as a double major in Philosophy and English. During this time I wrote a large number of belligerent essays and literary critiques. Since condign a Math major I have had to larn to write technical papers.
Source: https://public.wsu.edu/~kimander/aristotleart.htm
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