The salient features of Plato's attack on poetry

The salient features of Plato's attack on poetry: Plato, a well-known Greek philosopher who is adamant about his views on art, poets, and poetry, initiates a series of attacks against the poetic form. He explains his views and ideas in great depth in his Republic. Plato expresses the majority of his ideas via criticisms of poetry. The salient features of Plato's attack on poetry Plato was certain that poetry had power, and that this power influenced others to imitate what they saw in art. This appears to be a bad sign for him because of his metaphysical beliefs.

The essence of the universe, according to Plato, is that it is a replica of itself (mimesis). He believed that reality had several layers. The salient features of Plato's attack on poetry The top layer is made up of concepts, and the lesser levels are all based on those notions. Mimesis, according to Plato, is only a representation rather than a creative expression. The salient features of Plato's attack on poetry Plato said that a poet who represents a chair in a poem does not adequately depict the real thing. According to him, he believed in the existence of an absolute reality. The salient features of Plato's attack on poetry This cosmos is built up of ideal things, and the individual pieces that make up this world are only copies or reflections of those ideal things.

Plato was a firm believer in the importance of a reality's actual shape. He only believed in reality's most tangible representations. The salient features of Plato's attack on poetry Dramatized discussion was unacceptable to him because, according to his logic, it drove people to live lives that were not their own. The salient features of Plato's attack on poetry Even today, parents tell their children about how cable television came to be. The salient features of Plato's attack on poetry T.V. Plato was only trying to warn people about the risks of blindly mimicking roles; he was concerned that the influence of imitation would be so powerful that it would completely take over the minds and lives of countless young people, making it the most important thing in their lives.

After the death of Socrates and political upheaval following the war, education was in a sad state, and the only traditional Greek style of instruction for young people when they reached adulthood was Homer's poetry. The salient features of Plato's attack on poetry The epics of Homer were an important element of the educational curriculum. One of the main reasons for Plato's attack on poetry, which he explored in Book II of the Republic, was because of this curriculum. The salient features of Plato's attack on poetry The golden age of Greek art was passed, and the creative impetus had waned. The salient features of Plato's attack on poetry Plato criticised modern writing for being immoral and of poor quality, and he suggested that it be improved. Philosophers and orators were chosen above poets because of this terrible situation.

The salient features of Plato's attack on poetry: His fundamental criticism of mimesis was that both drama and epic imitate the realm of immaterial appearances, which he saw as a fault in the technique. The salient features of Plato's attack on poetry For him, abstractions were the only reality that existed. A play or an epic was a derivative of the derivative, and therefore three times distant from reality in the poet's eyes, because he was emulating the look of abstraction. The salient features of Plato's attack on poetry 'They are images, not depictions of reality,' says the author. The salient features of Plato's attack on poetry Plato was the first great thinker to challenge society on philosophical grounds, as can be seen while reading Plato's Republic, whereas the rhetoricians never questioned society on philosophical grounds.

In line with their own knowledge of the universe, the Neo-Platonists of the fourth and fifth centuries AD considered Plato's actuality of abstractions to be the Thoughts of God, based on Plato's thinking processes and ideas. The salient features of Plato's attack on poetry According to these views, artists may be able to bypass the world of sensory appearances in order to get direct access to the actual. The salient features of Plato's attack on poetry Despite the fact that their interpretations did not directly contribute to 'poiesis' in the classic sense, they paved the path for the poets' claims to be missionaries and the poets' words to be received as religious or truthful.

Among Plato’s writings are the Republic, Ion, Cratylus, the Dialogues of Plato, and the Phaedrus, to name just a few examples. The salient features of Plato's attack on poetry When it comes to poetry, Plato has dealt extensively with the idea of the poet as divinely inspired in the Phaedrus and has discussed the role of poetry in a healthy society when it comes to the Republic. In fact, in Book II, he addresses the education of a decent citizen, as well as the nature of poetry and the importance of creative writing, among other topics.  The salient features of Plato's attack on poetryBook X of the Republic is devoted to a detailed discussion of the nature of poetry. The salient features of Plato's attack on poetry His most significant contribution to literary theory comes in the shape of his criticisms on the concept of ‘poiesis.’ He does an excellent job of presenting this point via the lens of a painter. Plato, as we already said, believed in actual reality, in the ideal, and in abstractions as well. The salient features of Plato's attack on poetry For him, things were nothing more than a representation of reality or the ideal, and he believed that a person copying an imitation would result in a mimetic form that was three times as far away from the ideal as the reality or the ideal. Poetry, in a similar vein, did the same thing for Plato – it was poor because it was an imitation of an imitation of something else.

Plato's critique of poetry

Plato condemned poetry on a variety of reasons, including intellectual, emotional, and ethical grounds, as well as the influence of current curricula, lack of actuality, and poetry's illogical and irrational character. The salient features of Plato's attack on poetry Let's take a closer look at each one individually.

Intellectual Foundations

Plato's ideas were very solid on intellectual grounds. Poets, he claimed, have no comprehension of truth and simply copy appearance. He ranked works of art third below the truth. A poet, he said, is like a painter who imitates reality.

Emotional Soil

Plato characterises poetry as feeding and flourishing appetites and emotions rather than eradicating them in Book X of Republic. According to Plato, such feelings lull us into a state of delusion, and one is forced to experience emotions that he would never have in real life. The salient features of Plato's attack on poetry Such fictitious feelings and sentiments, according to Plato, are base and illegitimate; they foster weakness and contradict philosophical exhortations. The salient features of Plato's attack on poetry How can poetry be appropriate if it generates grief and troubles that no one enjoys in real life, Plato wondered.

Ethical Basis

Plato's ethical objection to poetry is that it lies about the gods, and many of the stories presented by poets are morally reprehensible. As a result, he despises Homer and Hesiod's poetry. The salient features of Plato's attack on poetry He also opposes allegorical interpretations that teach children how to distinguish between allegorical and real texts. The mythical poetry of the period was full of sensuality and malicious tales that were unfit for children. The salient features of Plato's attack on poetry He was also against children's stories that scare them and make them cowards in real life. Drama, he claims, is equally harmful to the public's morality and fosters licentiousness and lawlessness. Similarly, theatre, in his opinion, appeals to sensationalised love.

Existing Curriculum's Influence

Plato was opposed to the curriculum that was taught to young students. The majority of the course was centred on Homer's poetry, particularly his epics and Hesiod's poetry. The salient features of Plato's attack on poetry He was opposed to poetry, which he believed was immoral and based on false god myths. He concentrated on a moralistic curriculum that was grounded on truth rather than fantasy. For the curriculum, he preferred philosophy on poetry.

Reality Deficit

Plato's thoughts on poetry are akin to a picture that depicts a genuine item. Painting imitates via colour, whereas poetry imitates through words, according to him, but the function is the same: imitation. He accuses poetry of lacking both actuality and truth. The majority of god literature is contrived and wicked, and it is divorced from reality and truth. The majority of characters in epics are deceitful and deceptive, and they are illegitimate.

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