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Platonic World Is A Form of The Real World

Plato and Aristotle had influential ideas about literature and its role in society. Plato believed that poetry imitates reality, which is itself an imitation of ideal forms, so poetry is removed from truth. He argued poetry should be banished from society. Aristotle disagreed, believing poetry depicts universals rather than particulars, making it more philosophical. He analyzed tragedy in his Poetics, defining its elements like plot, character, and theme and stating tragedy should arouse catharsis through pity and fear. Their debates on literature's nature and value established foundations for literary criticism.

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134 views

Platonic World Is A Form of The Real World

Plato and Aristotle had influential ideas about literature and its role in society. Plato believed that poetry imitates reality, which is itself an imitation of ideal forms, so poetry is removed from truth. He argued poetry should be banished from society. Aristotle disagreed, believing poetry depicts universals rather than particulars, making it more philosophical. He analyzed tragedy in his Poetics, defining its elements like plot, character, and theme and stating tragedy should arouse catharsis through pity and fear. Their debates on literature's nature and value established foundations for literary criticism.

Uploaded by

Jawahir IB
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Lecture 3

What are Plato’s main ideas and why they are important ?

Plato’s ideas laid the foundation for many of the pivotal issues of philosophy and literature such as :

1- The concept of truth, beauty, and goodness.


2- The nature of reality.
3- The structure of society.
4- The nature and relations of being (ontology).
5- questions about how we know (epistemology).
6- Ethics and morality.
7- The foundation upon which literary theory rests.

What’s Plato’s theory of forms ?


The core of platonic thoughts resides in Plato’s doctrine , essences , ideas.

“Platonic world is a form of the real world”

What does the theory of forms states?


1= ultimate reality is spiritual.
2= this spiritual realm, the one, is composed of ideal forms of absolutes.
To sum up
( the ideal forms that give shape to our physical world because our material world is nothing
more than a shadow , a replica , of the absolute forms found in the spiritual realm).

How do we recognize any object in the material world?

We recognize the objects because the ideal object exists in this spiritual realm and preceded the
existence of the material object. Without the existence of the ideal object the object in the
material world which is nothing more than a shadow could not be existed.

(replica = representation, imitation, reflection)

Plato and literature.


Plato’s ideas earmarked the beginning and the foundation for literary criticism.
Plato and the nature of literature .

If our world is just a replica of the ideal world , then the poets who composes imaginative
literature are merely imitating an imitation when they write about any object in the real world.

Plato and values of literature.


1- Not only did Plato usurp literature’s role as an evaluating mode for discerning truth but also
condemned it.
2- A poet’s craft is ( an inferior who marries an inferior and has an inferior offspring).
3- The imitators of mere shadow cannot be trusted.
4- Art is nothing more than copy of copy.

Banishing literature. ‫نفي األدب‬

According to Plato:

 Poets produce their art relying on untrustworthy intuition rather than reason.
 There is no invention in the poet until he has been inspired, they the mind is no longer in him.
 Poets work can no longer be the basis of Greek morality and ethics.
 Plato ultimately concludes that the poets must be banished from Greek society.

What are the lies in literature about?

They are about nature of the ultimate reality and dangerous lies about human reality.

For example:

 in the Iliad the gods lie and cheat are the main suffering among human.
 The mortals steal, complain, and hate each other.

Such writing set bad examples for Greeks and may lead law-abiding people down paths of
wickedness.
Plato’s important.
Linking politics and literature in moral and reasoned world view, Plato and his academy
founded that initiated the debate still ongoing on the value, nature, and worth of literary.

Aristotle

Who is Aristotle ?
He’s Plato’s famous pupil.

What is lyceum?
It’s The peripatetic school of Athens.

 Aristotle rejected some of Plato’s beliefs about the nature of reality.


 Opted for a detailed investigation of the material world.
 Reveled in physical world.
What are the differences?

Plato: concerns with morality.

His chief concern was the subject matter of poetry and its effect on the reader.

Aristotle: emphases on the elements of which a work is composed.

What is Poetics:

 It’s the cornerstone of western literary criticism.


 A discussion of the basic components of literary work.

What is the meaning of poetic?


In Greek the word ( poetikes) means the things are made or crafted.

What was Aristotle’s purpose?


 Not to formulate a series of absolute rules for evaluating a tragedy.
 To state the general principles of tragedy , as he viewed them in his time.
 To respond to many plato’s doctrines and arguments.

Aristotle and Imitation :

 He agrees with Plato that all arts are imitation.


 He notes that (epic, poetry, tragedy, comedy , dithyrambic poetry, and most forms of flute and
lyre playing all happen to be in general , imitations.
 All imitations differ in how and what they imitate.
 The art of poetry exists because people are imitative creatures.
 Whereas plato contends that the aesthetic pleasure poetry is capable of arousing can
undermine the structure of society Aristotle strongly disagree.
 His disagreement is basically a metaphysical argument.

Aristotle contends that poetry is more universal and general than things as they are .

The poet’s task is to write of what could happen(poetry therefore is more philosophical and
higher than history)
In arguing that poets present things not as they are, but as they should be, Aristotle rebuffs
plato’s concept that the poet is merely imitating an imitation.

Tragedy and comedy

In Aristotle’s view not all imitations by poets are the same.

Why ?

Because
 writers of greater dignity imitated the noble actions.
 Less dignified writers imitated actions of inferior men.
 Comedy is an imitation of base men characterized not by every kind of vice but specifically by –
the ridiculous-.
 It is to tragedy written by poets imitating noble actions and heroes, that Aristotle turns his major
attention.

Definition of tragedy :

According to Aristotle: tragedy is an imitation of a noble and complete action.

Aristotle’s chief contributions to literary criticism : tragedy, or a work of art, is an imitation of nature
that reflects a high form of art in exhibiting noble characters and noble deeds, the act of imitation itself
giving us pleasure.

How should be the tragic hero?

He must be a man who is not eminently good and just, yet whose misfortune is brought about
not vice, but by some error or frailty.

Elements of tragic :
 Form: a tragedy is an organic whole, with its various parts all being formally interrelated.
 Plot : tragedy, unlike life has a defined beginning , a middle , and an end, with each of
the parts being related to every other part.
 Language : the poet must give close attention to diction or language, be it in verse,
prose, or song .
 Character : in tragedy, concern for form must be given to the characters as well as to the
structure of drama.
 Theme : the universal, not the particular, should be stressed. Unlike history that deals
with what happens, poetry or tragedy deals with what could happen, therefore it’s close
to the perfection.
Catharsis: the tragedy must have an emotional effect on its audience and ”through pity
and fear” effect catharsis- that is, by the play’s end the audience emotions should be
purged, purified, or clarified.

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