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Recommended: Plato view on art
Plato accounts for the discussion between the famous philosopher, Socrates, and the skilled rhapsode, Ion in his Ion. The two explore an abstract idea that, during primitive times, was controversial and arose in many conversations as useless and unappreciated. This idea of art carries through the text as Socrates mocks Ion, along with all the other rhapsodes and artists, regarding their “untruthful” and “unskillful” profession. He calls them “light and winged and sacred things” that are “unable ever to indite until he has been inspired and put out of his senses” while breaking down his theory to Ion (534b). But Plato really presents the point of his view when he states “rhapsodes and actors, and the men whose poems they chant, are wise; whereas …show more content…
Plato uses Socrates as tools to expose his beliefs on art and express how he feels about it 's effect on society. Socrates touches on the topic of truth a couple times before finally confronting Ion and how it relates back to him, which gets the ball rolling and Ion begins seeing his point, but failing to acknowledge his questions with clear answers. The Socratic dialogue form that Plato uses is useful in the fact that we get to see Ion’s viewpoint veer towards realizing the drawbacks of being a rhapsode and not a general as he was previously. Plato is brilliant, in that he leads people to question themselves through the questions he posses. He forces not only Ion, but also the audience to question what they haveve been thinking up until this point about art. His intend audience would have been the pre-Socratic society that enjoyed and respected poetry and art. These people were now being challenged by Socrates, who viewed the art they loved as fake imitations of something real, to think logically and reduce the abstract. Plato was strategic in including passages like this because it could now spark a different thought process in these people and even the …show more content…
I felt as though his argument was more focused around his theory of forms, imitation and divinity possession. After my second time around, skimming and picking through the text I realized the passage and it stuck. Plato, being such a logical thinker, hates when there is a mass amount of people who can not think logically and are fixed on things that are not real and truthful to reality. Despite the fact that his argument having some faults, Socrates hit the nail head-on when breaking down why art is technically untruthful. The artist did not invent or construct the couch that he painted and the poet is not the character he is playing, therefore they are deceiving society. I do, however, disagree with his argument on the skill required to produce a single work of art. He claims that artist just imitate skill. I believe otherwise because in order for art to actually be enjoyed, the skill imitated, has to be executed with skill, so skill is required. Poets require an insane amount of skill to assume a role and provoke emotions out of the audience. Artists require skill to produce realism that gives the audience that athetic experience. So yes, art may not be truthful, but it is produced with
...of a chair is only an illusion to trick the viewer into thinking that their seeing an actual chair. Plato argues that this is not useful in society, since it is not truth. His argument is very narrow minded in that it only sees value in objects which have a concrete practical use. Whereas, a painters work doesn’t have a function other than to provide beauty which can enhance one’s life experience.
Throughout all the years, he never could find anyone as wise as himself, and all he did was make enemies searching. These enemies are now his accusers, and they accuse him of spreading evil doctrines, corrupting the youth, and not believing in the Gods. Throughout the speech, Socrates continues to shoot down every accuser and it is evident that he has done no wrong. Eventually, one of his accusers states that he must be doing something strange and that he wouldnt be that famous if he were like other men. Socrates did not live a very public life unlike most people at that time. His thoughts of being virteous had more to do with examining yourself and becoming a better person and in that way, you benifit society. He did not believe Athens to be virtuos at all, and that they relied on materail things and reputation rather than finding happiness by searching for it deep within
I disagree with his views on censorship, having assigned positions in society, his views on democracy, and that art cannot be a respectable occupation. In books II and III Socrates argues that much of epic poetry that contains false statements about the gods and other immoral subjects should be removed from their city. If the education of the citizens were to be censored in this way, they would not properly be able to learn the divisions between the moral and immoral (just and unjust). In this sense the people may wish to explore what is being censored more than if it were not, and subsequently lead to injustice.
For these two articles that we read in Crito and Apology by Plato, we could know Socrates is an enduring person with imagination, because he presents us with a mass of contradictions: Most eloquent men, yet he never wrote a word; ugliest yet most profoundly attractive; ignorant yet wise; wrongfully convicted, yet unwilling to avoid his unjust execution. Behind these conundrums is a contradiction less often explored: Socrates is at once the most Athenian, most local, citizenly, and patriotic of philosophers; and yet the most self-regarding of Athenians. Exploring that contradiction, between Socrates the loyal Athenian citizen and Socrates the philosophical critic of Athenian society, will help to position Plato's Socrates in an Athenian legal and historical context; it allows us to reunite Socrates the literary character and Athens the democratic city that tried and executed him. Moreover, those help us to understand Plato¡¦s presentation of the strange legal and ethical drama.
In what is noted as one of Plato first accounts, we become acquainted with a very intriguing man known as Socrates; a man, whose ambition to seek knowledge, inevitably leaves a significant impact on humanity. Most of all, it is methodologies of attaining this knowledge that makes him so mesmerizing. This methodology is referred to as Socratic irony, in literature. In any case, I will introduce the argument that Plato's Euthyphro is extremely indicative of this type of methodology, for the reason being that: Socrates's portrays a sense of intellectual humility.
To recall another relic of ancient Greece, Plato had strong opinions on artwork, even that which was created during his time. Plato believed tha...
...ates. The image the Apology forms of Socrates is man who was not afraid of death. No matter what the consequences may result to be, Socrates was always truthful and not afraid to stand firm in his opinion even if that meant standing alone. He always wanted to seek justice for all and do what was right no matter the situation. Lastly, he was a man that believed that pleasing god was the most important. Even though that this image may or may not be entirely correct, the viewpoint of Plato’s about Socrates shows how a few saw him a positive example, even though most people believed he was corrupt.
In Plato’s Apology it seems that overall Socrates did an effective job using the 3 acts of the mind. The three acts of the mind are: Understanding, Judgment, and Reasoning. These acts are stragically used to rebut the charges made against him during trial. The two charges that are formed against Socrates are corrupting the youth and not believing in the gods. The first act of the mind that we will be looking at is, understanding. The question that needs to be asked is what does corruption mean? The accuser believe that Socrates in corrupting the minds of the children by introducing new concepts. Socrates is trying to teach and involve the minds of the youth by getting them to ask question. It is very important that people are always asking questions about why things are. The next question that needs to be address is what does not believe in the gods mean? Socrates believes in God but that is one god that rules the world, not multiple gods who together rule. They are mad that he has “created” his own god.
In Aristophanes’ Clouds, the character Socrates is clearly intended to be a subversive member of Athenian society. He runs the school, the Thinkery, which takes in young Athenians and teaches them what Aristophanes portrays as bizarre concepts and ideas, “whether the hum of a gnat is generated via its mouth o...
Raphael’s School of Athens is the first art work to represent the epitome of Greek philosophy in a unique manner. The fundamental conception of The School of Athens is without precedent in the tradition of European art. Before Raphael, artists depicted philosophy allegorically. (Most, 145). School of Athens depicts the whole complex product of Greek thought. Greek philosophy may be divided in three phases: the material, the speculative and the scientific. These three phases are depicted in Raphael's work, the material and the scientific are purely physical and occupy the lower level, whereas the speculative is depicted on the upper platform (Garigues, 409). In this paper we will analyze how the three phases of Greek philosophy are illustrated so skillfully in Raphael’s work The School of Athens.
Socrates believes that only philosophers have the first-hand knowledge of things, since they believe in The Forms. Socrates also denounces Homer. Socrates feels that in his writing, Homer has pretended to be people he is not, such as a politician, general, businessman, teacher, and philosopher. Socrates feels this is wrong because Homer is claiming to be able to perform these functions that he has written about, but never really performed himself. He feels that Homer is abandoning "reality". Plato feels that poetry has no place in his Ideal State, and should be banished until it can show itself to be a friend of philosophy. Socrates also mentions about the existence of an immortal soul. With this concession, he makes the point that good is that which preserves and benefits. Justice is good, so it therefore preserves and benefits in this life as well as the next. Therefore, even though a man may w...
In the play, Aristophanes’ Clouds, Strepsiades, an Athenian man who is greatly in debt, decides to enroll his son Pheidippides in Socrates’ school “thinkery” so that he may learn how to make stronger speech (Clouds, pg.120). Throughout the play, major concerns arise on the truth about nature and questions the truth about the gods. In the Clouds, Socrates appears to not believe in Zeus and claims that the true gods are the Clouds. The Socrates in Clouds, has illustrated to many a Socrates who is harmful to the community and that his teachings to the Athenian youth will make the wrongful speech (Clouds, pg.120). In contrast, Plato goes against Aristophanes by illustrating Socrates in the Apology, not as a teacher, but a public speaker, “I have never been anyone’s teacher; but if any one, whether younger or older, desired to hear me speak, I never begrudged it to him”
Poetry, with its focus on mimesis or imitation, has no moral value. While Plato sees reality as a shadow of a realm of pure Ideas (which in turn is copied by art), Aristotle sees reality as a process of partially realized forms moving towards their ideal realizations. Given this idea by Aristotle, the mimetic quality of art is redefined as the duplication of the living process of nature and its need to reach its potential form. Art, then, for Aristotle, does not become the enemy of society if the artist is loyal to the representation of the process of becoming in nature. Horace, like Aristotle and Plato, also brings to view a theory of poetry as mimesis.
First, Plato believed that ideas are the realist things in the world. What we see in our daily life is not reality; sense perceptions are only appearances. And appearances are unreliable material copies of the immaterial pure ideas. Thus to him the world of the ideas is reasonable and fixed and holds the truth. While the world of physical appearances is variable and irrational, and it only bears reality to the extent that it succeeds in capturing the idea. To live the best life that you can and to be happy and do good, as a person you have to strive to understand and imitate the ideas as best as you can. So, with this philosophy in mind we can understand why Plato considered art as just a mindless pleasure. He viewed art as just an imitation.
Socrates demonstrates to Ion that rhapsodes have no knowledge. Socrates tells Ion that if his ability came by mastery, he would be able to speak about all the other poets as well. The whole of any other subject won’t have same discipline throughout and this goes for every subject that can be mastered. It’s a divine power that moves Ion, as a “Magnetic” stone moves iron rings. This stone not only pulls those rings, if they’re iron, it also puts power in the rings, so that they in turn can do just what the stone does, pull other rings, so that there’s sometimes a very long chain of iron pieces and rings hanging from one another. And the power in all of them depends on this stone. None of the epic poets, if they’re good, are masters of their subject; they are inspired, possessed, and that is how thy utter all those beautiful poems.