Plato On Censorship

In today’s society, we are constantly being bombarded with visual art forms. Whether they be classical paintings from the Renaissance, a towering and modern skyscraper, or even a cheesy 90’s R&B music video, they all have one thing in common. According to Carolyn Dean’s definition, these would all fall under the category of “art by intention.” In her essay “The Trouble with (The Term) Art” she advocates a distinction between art by intention and what she deems “art by appropriation.” The difference is that one work was created with the intention of being consumed for visual pleasure, while the other was not. However having been educated in the Western school of thought, many art historians cannot help but project their rigid definition of art onto civilizations that may have

Art has been around since the beginning of humankind and it has been and will always be a visual form of human expression, ideas, and morals. Art is subjective and everyone will feel differently towards one specific artwork. But disliking an artwork because it offends you does not mean that you must destroy it. Recently, a white artist, Dana Schutz created an abstract painting of Emmett Till, a 14 year old African American that was killed by a couple of white men because he supposedly whistled at a white lady. Many people have deemed this artwork as a form of cultural appropriation and have demanded the artist to take it down. Despite the controversies of this artwork, art should never ever be censored because it violates the artist’s freedom

The First Amendment speaks on the freedoms of religion, speech, press, assembly and petition; so important, they found their place in the US Constitution. Even with these freedoms meaning so much to the majority of America, somehow today we still encounter differences in political and religious views that seem to provoke people to act violently against a piece of art or even physically against the artist that created it such as in the recent case of artist Illma Gore. Often the violent action of destroying a work of art is “more offensive” than the image itself. We should allow artists free reign of subject matter as well as style and work together to prevent art desecration and violence through education of the arts. Censorship is the result of the fear of art. When the fear of art turns into iconoclasm or, rejection of a valued belief system, that fear becomes lack of government funding, desecration, and physical violence.

For instance in the novel the protagonist Guy Montag says “Maybe the books can get us half out of the cave.They might just stop us from making the same damn insane mistakes! I don't hear those idiot bastards in your parlor talking about it”. In this quote we can see some of the effects of extreme censorship, where it can lead to people not being able to discuss certain topics and talk about things that are important because other people find it offensive or can’t even get the news out in the first place because of censorship. Another negative thing that could be caused by censorship is that in a way it would take away the some of our freedom for example in The New York Times article “Lights out, Huck, They still want to sivilize you” it says “This is the academic equivalent od Ed Sullivan in 1967 prudishly making the Rolling Stones change ‘Let’s spend the night together’ to ‘Let’s spend time together.’ Or Cole Porter having to change ‘cocaine’ in ‘I Get a Kick Out of You’ to ‘perfume in Spain’.” In this example you can see how there are other artists that have already have some of their artistic freedom taken away unfairly because of

In this paper I will defend the hypothesis that Plato’s set of regulations concerning sexual relations and the family in the Republic Book V will fail because it would disrupt the natural order of reproduction that the city will need for future philosophers to continue the path of philosophy.

Art is one aspect of the past that has carried on for decades. Art in any form may it be poetry, novels, and playwright, sculpting as well as painting, has been an outlet for generations and continues to be an outlet and a means for expression. This paper will discuss “ The Mona Lisa” one of Da Vinci’s most famous paintings, as well as another great painting, Antonio Veneziano’s

Censorship is “anti-creation” and “the censor’s lie actually succeeds in replacing the artist’s truth”. When something is censored, it is then “thought to have deserved censorship”. This shows that artists need to feel liberated to feel safe enough to be creative and not be silenced by people’s criticism. When something is censored it becomes attacked and starts to define the

Censorship has existed for as long as free thought has. The earliest instance of censorship recorded in history is marked by the death of the earliest and most famous philosopher, Socrates. As Geoff Kemp recounts in his book, Censorship Moments: readings Texts in the History of Censorship and Freedom, Socrates in the ancient Roman society was viewed as “a threat to the city and its young.” Cato, a politician and statesman in ancient Greece who led the charge against Socrates “sensed in Socratic philosophy, a threat to the traditional values of the city – one based on Socrates’ claim that wisdom lay in knowing that he did not know.” (Kemp) While Socrates encouraged his followers to question the laws and customs that they took for

Throughout human history people used to capture the reality of their time, express their feelings and share their impressions by copying both literally or figurative the mundane. The so-called artists have had different impacts in society all along the centuries. Only a few are currently taught in school, although the reverberation of their work is still impregnated in XXI Century. Nowadays, the term ‘artist’ can be used in reference of painters, sculptors, writers, singers, choreographers and other professions whose production are considered valuable culturally speaking. One of the main problems is that their work produce such a magnificent impact on the audience the artist is set aside and usually forgotten as a person, so they feel their rights to be violated.

Judy Blume talks about the problems with censorship in her article, “Censorship: A Personal View”. Blume speaks of the troubles she has gone through due to the extreme censorship from teachers, administrators, and parents. Blume also speaks of all the importance that was banned along with these books. Many books have material that is “questionable” to certain viewers.

Censorship, is when a piece of art is monitored because the content is not appropriate for society or people of all ages. I believe that censorship hurts the artist and their right to freely express themselves.

In the Republic, Plato proposes the complete censorship of imitative poetry from his ideal city, arguing that it corrupts individuals’ souls and therefore has a negative effect on society, resulting in injustice within the city. Although seemingly trivial at first, when considered within its proper context, the censorship of imitative poetry from the city would result in severe consequences. Throughout this essay I will discuss the political and psychological implications of its censorship, and will also refute Plato’s argument, showing how it lacks soundness: notably, through a criticism of his epistemology. Regarding the political implications of the censorship of poetry, I will draw from the ideas of Karl Popper, who argued Plato to be one of the most influential philosophers on the emergence of totalitarian regimes in the 20th century, laying the foundations for their very existence (K. Popper, 1945). I will also show how poets themselves have an important political role within cities, in that they enable the general population to hold the state accountable for their actions. To discuss the psychological implications of poetry’s censorship, I will compare the contrasting views of Plato and Aristotle regarding its effect on the soul, whereby Aristotle claims that poetry actually has beneficial, cathartic effects. Following these criticisms, it will become apparent that Plato’s proposed ban of imitative poetry is indefensible.

The censorship of books is a division of censorship that, apart from Internet censorship, receives the most publicity. Banning books is the most popular form of such censorship. Many banned books are literary classics,

As literary critics, Plato and Aristotle disagree profoundly about the value of art in human society. Plato attempts to strip artists of the power and prominence they enjoy in his society, while Aristotle tries to develop a method of inquiry to determine the merits of an individual work of art. It is interesting to note that these two disparate notions of art are based upon the same fundamental assumption: that art is a form of mimesis, imitation. Both philosophers are concerned with the artist's ability to have significant impact on others. It is the imitative function of art which promotes disdain in Plato and curiosity in Aristotle. Examining the reality that art

For over two thousand years, various philosophers have questioned the influence of art in our society. They have used abstract reasoning, human emotions, and logic to go beyond this world in the search for answers about arts' existence. For philosophers, art was not viewed for its own beauty, but rather for the question of how art and artists can help make our society more stable for the next generation. Plato, a Greek philosopher who lived during 420-348 B.C. in Athens, and Aristotle, Plato’s student who argued against his beliefs, have no exceptions to the steps they had to take in order to understand the purpose of art and artists. Though these two philosophers made marvelous discoveries about the existence of art, artists, and