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Explain Plato's Arguments Against Art In The Book X Of The Republic

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Explain and discuss Plato's arguments against art in book X of the republic.

The aim of this essay is to evaluate Plato's argument for and against Art. I will be looking at a few things. First of all, the importance of education within Plato's society and how he believes that the influence of art creates division and thus imbalance within us and therefore within society. Additionally, I will also examine how Plato says art is thrice removed from reality. To him this is dangerous as the final product is just a shadow of the actual original idea. Finally is will look at Plato's positive belief in Art, and how it connects us with the divine world, and allows us to perceive beauty.

At around 420 BCE, when Plato was born, education was one of the most important things in the Greek society. They considered a harmonious city to only be achievable if its citizens were harmonious too. Harmony within creates harmony outside. Plato believed that the soul was divided into three parts; desire, spirit and reason. Desire, the lowest part of the soul, is constantly affected by appetitive drive and instinct. Reason, the highest part of the soul, is …show more content…

Through art, he says, we can see with 'eyes of the soul', whereas in real life, we can only see with our 'eyes of mud'. Plato is trying to explain that in life beauty is hard to be found, if it can even be found at all. On Earth there is no light of justice. All we see is struggle, devastation and ugliness. This is just what Schopenhauer says; because humanity wants a purpose for itself, we will always strive for more. For this reason we never feel complete happiness nor satisfaction. Only when we can eliminate our self-interest and the utility of everything around us, then we can find satisfaction. (Philosophies of Art and Beauty, Selected Readings in Aesthetics from Plato to Heidegger, edited by Albert Hofstadter and Richard Kuhns, Chicago : Chicago Univ. Pr., 1976.

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