Plato is often called the father of Western philosophy, much in the way that Sigmund Freud is considered the father of psychoanalysis; however whilst Freud is considered outdated by modern standards two thousand years later Plato is still held in high regard. Plato writes about many philosophical topics we are going to focus on his views that relate to aesthetics, what are Plato's views on art and understanding of beauty.
A couple of Plato’s most famous Socratic dialogues the Republic and the Symposium talk extensively about the concept of beauty as well as the place of art in a perfect republic… namely none existent.
Going at a basic level of explanation Plato’s concept of knowledge is that we a born with full and pure knowledge or forms and ideas; such as we have a knowledge from the beginning we have a concept of ‘beauty’ before we ever see what we consider what we believe to be beautiful . As we then learn, we are actually remembering these ‘truths’ or ‘ideas’. The physical work is imperfect with differences of reality. Plato uses the example of a bed to explain this; there is the idea of a bed. Once you are told to think of a bed, the basic idea is the same to all. That is the ‘pure’ form, from there differences come to mind, in the shape, colour, structure and design; this is the physical object which is impure because it is not universal. Pure forms include things such as beauty, truth, justice and courage.
Pure truths, as Plato describes them, can only be discovered by reasoned thought and critical thinking; whereas objects are understood by sensations such as sight, smell and touch. The physical is the shadows cats on the wall of the cave whilst the sunlight we are blind to is the true forms of ideas. Our sensors are able too be fooled, our eyes can be tricked by lights or reflections; therefore they cannot be trusted to create our understanding or increase out knowledge. From this Plato also goes into why art and poetics are a problem, the epistemic problem with them. If the physical world is an imperfect copy of the world of forms and ideas than art is an imperfect copy of an imperfect copy. Philosophy in ancient Greece steamed from a rivalry between the Sophists and the artists and poets, as they teach competing methods of understanding the morals of the world.
Artists and poets use sensors and passions to invoke what they or society believes to be the right morals in the people who listen or view their work. Plato and the Sophists believe that the use of rhetoric and the questioning of beliefs lead to a deeper level of knowledge and as Plato understood the truths that are based on mathematics, logic, science and rational thought. This and the art and poetry has no knowledge base to it. Going back to the example of the ‘bed’ even the physical form, whilst impure in comparison to the idea of the bed, it still requires skill and knowledge to make a bed; therefore there is still a value in the physical form. To create an artistic representation of the bed does not require any knowledge of how to make a bed. This representation of an object can fool, ‘children or people with a simple mind’ into thinking it is the actual object although there is no knowledge behind it.
There is also the corrupting power of art; that it appeals to a baser instinct of mankind and things such as pleasure, sex or violence. This is an argument that is still very much in the mind of us today; the questions of where the line of art or ‘smut’ is drawn, where should censorship and the government step in. It is this part of the argument that I find particularly interesting, not just because it is a debate that is still alive unlike the idea of forms which has been moved past by most philosophy; but also because it shows, as I see it, the major contradiction in Plato’s work. He believes that art, poetry, drama and things such as this should be banished from the perfect ‘republic’, apart from hymns to the Gods or praise of great men. Plato makes this claim seemingly unaware of the dramatic method in which he is working. Socratic dialogs are a piece of theatre, they are fictionalized events told in an evocative manner in order to show the moral and ethics that Plato believes are correct. In fact the ‘censorship’ or ideas by the government out of fear for corrupting the youth is what lead Plato’s mentor and friend Socrates to be executed by suicide.
I doubt Plato considered himself an artists; in fact it is a certainty that he did not. Yet, he was. His medium was very close to the theatre and drama, which he criticized as inciting conflict between reason and passion to eventually foster conflict. His belief in the perfect society relies on everyone coming to the same universal truths as him. Plato, as an educated Greek man who was already hailed as a great thinker, would have believed without question; at least in my opinion, that his beliefs were infallible. Plato’s world had been built up by Socrates, a great thinker and more importantly a great arguer, the skill of rhetoric used by them meant that very few if any could hold their own against them in debate. The better you can express yourself the less likely you are to allow new beliefs to change your own, despite the fact that Plato trumpets the idea that you cannot know everything on your own, as you need education and discussion to remember the knowledge of forms and ideas you were naturally born with. Of course, this is again just my opinion, and I must be willing to hear opposing views.
I think I shall have a separate post about censorship of art in our modern world as it is an issue that I have been hearing a lot about of late, especially with the recent American bills of SOPA and PIPA, and far before that of art involving children and young adults with the questions about protections of the innocent.
Quickly I want to look at the idea of beauty that Plato describes in his Symposium, in particular the speech of Diotima. Which Plato presents as the 'correct' view on love. Beauty, as discussed above, is a pure idea from the realm of forms. Love, as Diotima describes it, is the child of passion and contrivance; love desires beauty because love does not posses it. You only desire what you can't have and thus love is always searching for a new beauty. Now this is not meant to mean physical beauty. Plato is not saying that love is the eternal search for this...
Beauty is meant to represent 'goodness'. It is the desire to make ourselves beautiful or good and to make our goodness immortal that leads to our want to procreate. To see ourselves last though the generations. Now this does not mean, our sole desire is for children, we can procreate and last through music, books, or at the greatest form through ideas. There are a number of forms of love but the highest, the one to be aimed for is Platonic love. Love on an intellectual basis, the love of wisdom; philosophy. Plato has in fact managed to reach the highest form of love. His philosophy has been procreated through ideas and discussion to last over two thousand years. He has moved beyond the first level for animal procreation, human procreation which is a desire to create love about the physical desire. Physical love based on morals and ethics; caring for the physical needs of that person. Love of physical beauty, not for the pleasure but because of the goodness that the pure form of beauty represents. Love of the soul, caring for someone intellectual needs over their physical needs. And finally Platonic love, the love of wisdom.
Plato would no doubt, feel great pride and take great pleasure, in how his life has played out in the history of philosophy and the world.
