An Examination Of Plato’s Conception Of Art
Chapter One
Introduction
1.1 Background of the Study
Plato (427-347B.C) is generally considered as one of the greatest philosopher who ever lived. There are, at least, two strong reason for this conclusion. The first reason is because Plato raised almost all of our fundamental philosophical questions and these questions are still being asked by great thinkers today. The second reason for Plato’s right to be called the greatest philosopher is that many of his attempts to proffer solutions to out fundamental philosophical question which he raised has been very useful and are still useful for us today. Each philosophical era rediscovers for itself Plato’s persistent and penetrating value. Even if we disagree with some of his ideas, as some great philosophers did, still, we may not easily escape from him. His ideas glow seriously, fantastically and permanently on philosophy’s bill-board. It is a difficult thing to ignore and an impossible task to forget the philosopher’s ideas. This is because his ideas are so profound, so influential and so persuasively argued (Rauch, 6).
Plato had a love-hate relationship with the art. He must have had some course for the arts, because he talks about them often, and his remarks show that he paid close attention to what he saw and heard, He was also a sine literacy stylist and a great story-teller; in fact he is said to have been a poet before he encountered Socrates and been and became a philosopher. Some of his dialogues are real literary masterpieces. On the other hand, he found the art threatening, or at least censoring what they wrote; and he wanted music and painting severely censored. The arts, he thought, are powerful shapers of character. Thus, to train and protect ideal society and citizens for an ideal state, the art must be strictly controlled.
Plato’s influence on western culture generally is a very strong one, and this includes a strong influence on the arts and aesthetic theory that influence is mostly indirect, and is best understood if one knows a little bit about his philosophy. Plato saw the changing physical world as a poor decaying copy of a perfect rational, eternal, and changeless original. The beauty of a flower, or a surest, a piece of music or a love affair, is an imperfect copy of beauty itself. In this world of changing appearances, while you might catch a glimpse of that ravishing perfection, it will always fade.
Plato had two theories of art. One may be found in his dialogue The Republic, and seems to be the theory that Plato himself believed. According to this theory, since art imitate the forms, art is always a copy of a copy, and leads us even further from truth and toward illusion, for this reason, as well as because of its power to stir the emotions, art is dangerous. Plato’s other theory is hinted at in his shorter dialogue Ion, and in his exquisitely crafted symposium. According to this theory the artist, perhaps by divine inspiration, makes a better copy of the true than may be found in ordinary experience. Thus the artist is a kind of prophet. This project will intend to look at the meaning, type of art, theories of art and critique, in all this work will be focus on the Plato’s conception of art. Plato’s attitude on art has always been hardly debated among scholars, and in recent times the interest on ancient aesthetics in general and Plato’s attitude in particular have been even increased in the philosophical debate. The purpose of this work is to critically examine Plato notion of art.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
The problem with Plato’s position is two-fold. On the one hand he expresses hard criticism against poetry and he even banishes the poets from the ideal state he envisage in the Republic. This work strives to examine whether artistic expression is enjoyable, either as a participant or a spectator, has given meaning to people’s lives throughout history regardless of cultural circumstances, it also strives to examine whether a particular work can be considered a good token of the type it belongs to and if it is accepted that a particular work is a good example of art.
1.3 Objective of the Study
The main objective of this paper is to examine the notion of art by Plato, and Plato’s conception about censorship of works of art.
1.4 Justification of the Study
This research attempts to examine Plato’s notion of art, in order to justify whether the notion can be acceptable by all, and to know how works of art should be practiced and limited in order to avoid corruption of the people in our contemporary societies.
1.5 Significance of the Study
The significance of this research is a clarion call by Plato to all artists around the globe to avoid perverted works of art, and also provide the benefit of allowing an art appreciator to understand certain details about works of art which he did not perceive before. For instance, Plato’s theory of art if properly used can possibly influence Nigerian artist in the society, and can also help in educating the artist and proofer solution on how works of art should be done.
1.6 Method of the Study
This research employs the philosophical method of conceptual clarity, analysis and critisms. These methods are employed because of the nature of describing the concepts used in this work. Thus, it is necessary to conceptualize, clarify, evaluate, summarize as well as draw conclusions.
1.7 Scope of the Study
The scope of this work is limited only to Plato’s conception of art. His metaphysics, theory of knowledge, and religion and so on, are excluded from this work.
1.8 Definition of Terms
Art: Art is a human enterprise concerned with the production of aesthetic objects. “Art can also be seen as the creation and enjoyment of beauty in music, drama, poetry, painting, sculpture and architecture, in that case, art can be entertaining or practical and may stimulate the mind as well as reveal meaning in familiar things”. (Idang, 156).
Beauty: Beauty is a combination of qualities, such as shape, colour or form that pleases the aesthetic senses, especially the sight. Plato regarded beauty as objective in the sense that it was not localized in the response of the beholder.
Censorship: Censorship is the suppression or prohibition of anything that are considered obscene, politically unacceptable, or threat to security.
Form: Form may be said to be roughly a property or quality as opposed to the individual which have it. Ontologically, a form is conceived of as an independently real, abstract object, an essence which exist apart from whatever concrete exemplifications of it there may be.
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