The (Gendered) Problem of Plato and the Poets (2024)

FAQs

What is Plato's idea of poets and poetry? ›

According to Plato, poetry has no place in education (especially the education of guardians) because it is deceptive and harmful. He gives the example of how gods are depicted in poems: human-like, with humane emotions, quarrels, evil motives, and actions. Gods were moral role models for the citizens of the time.

Plato banished the poet from his ideal state because they strayed away from reality. Plato preferred reality in poetry, but it was not truly presented by the poets. Poets use imagination and ornamented language to represent beyond the reality. The poetic works are three steps away from reality.

But not because they were poets. He banished them because they produced the wrong sort of poetry. To rebut Plato's critique of poetry, what is needed is not a defence of poetry, but a defence of the freedom of poets to write as, and what, they wish.

Plato's three main objections to poetry are that poetry is not ethical, philosophical and pragmatic, in other words, he objected to poetry from the point of view of Education, from Philosophical point of view and from Moral point of view.

Aristotle defended poetry against three charges made by Plato. [1] Plato claimed art is less than reality, but Aristotle argued art provides something more through idealization and perception. [2] Plato said art does not teach morality, but Aristotle said art's purpose is aesthetic experience, not ethics.

Plato believed that reality is divided into two parts: the ideal and the phenomena. The ideal is the perfect reality of existence. The phenomena are the physical world that we experience; it is a flawed echo of the perfect, ideal model that exists outside of space and time. Plato calls the perfect ideal the Forms.

As a moralist, Plato disapproves of poetry because it is immoral, as a philosopher he disapproves of it because it is based in falsehood. He is of the view that philosophy is better than poetry because philosopher deals with idea / truth, whereas poet deals with what appears to him / illusion.

In conclusion, while Plato's concept of the ideal state introduces thought-provoking ideas about governance, justice, and virtue, its limitations, including authoritarianism, impracticality, and neglect of diversity, have led to ongoing debates about the feasibility and desirability of such a societal model.

Final answer: Plato desired to keep artists away from his ideal state that he believed should be ruled by philosophers. He held that art distracts from philosophical pursuits, the artists can promote dissent, challenge societal norms and did not view art as a path to truth.

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Plato believed that poetry is breeder of falsehood and thus mother of all lies because poetry dealt with illusion and not reality. Poet's creation is twice removed from reality and thus false and all lies are dealt in poetry.

What does Plato think about literature? ›

According to Plato's arguments, reading a good book (of epic Homeric poetry, say) is the intellectual equivalent of chewing gum and calling it a meal: it gives us nothing but the illusion that we're eating, and we gain nothing but a stomach ache. However, I contend that literature only seems to be an imitation.

Poetry is about imagery, passion, expression, sentiment, and so on, whereas philosophy is about reason, logic, argument and solutions to problems.

According to Plato, true poetry aims to teach moral values. Plato attacks poetry on the following grounds: Poets imitate reality and their created poetry is moved away from the original. Poetry is thrice removed from reality and makes men believe in imperfection.

He saw poetry as a creative imitation that could represent internal emotions and explore possibilities. While Plato saw philosophy as superior to poetry, Aristotle believed poetry was superior and could deal with philosophical matters through emotional expression.

The contradiction is that in saying that Socrates does not believe in the gods at all (26c), Meletus is contradicting his official charge that Socrates believes in new divinities (26b). The "new divinities" refers to Socrates' divine sign from god (See 31c).

He proposed sending the poets and playwrights out of his ideal Republic, or at least censoring what they wrote; and he wanted music and painting severely censored. The arts, he thought, are powerful shapers of character.

The role of the poet is conclusively declared as subversive to the interest of the state. Herfiis presence was therefore not allowed and she was banished. Plato's denigration of art as stated in the Republic has become proverbial.

poetry, literature that evokes a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience or a specific emotional response through language chosen and arranged for its meaning, sound, and rhythm.