MY PHILOSOPHY CLASS was reading BOOK X of Plato's The Republic last week and I had a bone to pick about Plato's views on visual art and poetry. Basically, the idea is that Art is thrice removed from Reality; Reality being the original form or CONCEPT of something.
Only God or The Creator can create Reality. The example in the text is a bed. The concept of the bed, it's use and purpose, is its Reality.
Second to Reality is the actual tangible thing. Man creates things such as a carpenter building a bed in this sense. Every bed made is just a copy of the true Reality of The Bed.
And thirdly comes the arts, because Art is an imitation of things. According to Plato, it is least significant because it only captures the image of something and not the Concept or Reality. In this instance, a painting of a bed is an example of art being a representation of the appearance of something.
Plato wanted to rid the world of Poets and Artists and Tragedists because he thought they distracted people from the ultimate reality. I differed with this whole concept personally. I am a consumer of Poetry and Art and I appreciate them as vehicles of emotional communication. Which in my opinion is not a deterrent from truth but a way to discern what you want your Truth to be.
IF ART AND POETRY WERE just a simple imitation of the Truth, then I might understand Plato's condemning of it. But a lot of Concepts can be derived through Art. Pablo Picasso's Guernica is a depiction of the Spanish Civil War. It's kind of an abstract painting, but it is a portrayal nonetheless of profound emotions, which to me, are just as valid as rationalism and the search for Truth.
Guernica Pablo Picasso (1937)
I don't like philosophy. It makes me think too much on something tha can be described on much simplier terms. I must agree with Plato on this one.
ReplyDeleteThe arts are good in some sense but I feel they deter humanity from bettering itself in many ways from an economical standpoint. Too many people in college study the arts and not actual careers they can get into. Even then "applied arts" such as journalism are ridiculed because of the downsizing of the human emotion behind the piece.
In reality most pictures are nice, but more as a hobby than a career. Thats why half of these New York hipsters don't make it past a year. They serve no use to society.
Pena the arts are very important in my opinion. Sure, being a product of the working class, you are going to have that mentality in which economics and structural societal functions are important; and with that the arts are going to fall at the wayside.
ReplyDeleteBut being human, it's important to access your emotions and be creative and innovative. WE ARE NOT ROBOTS. and the obedient, oppressive nature of the powers that be are always questioned by the exceptional minds of those who are enlightened through critical thought; The philosphers, The Poets, The Scholars, etc.
People who are into liberal arts are constantly being downplayed because they don't have careers and they don't have money. Thus, they are discouraged and they don't follow their dreams. being pragmatic about your career is fine, but ignoring the necessity for the arts will make you a subordinate cog in the wheel of the machine.
Artists inspire movements and make people think outside the box or realize a greater truth of their oppression.