-Introduction to the author and his work:
Plato, detail of The School of Athens by Raphael Sanzio.
Plato (Athens, Greece, 427 -. 347 BC) was a major philosopher of Classical Greece. He saw influenced by the thought of Socrates (Athens, Greece, 470 a.- 399 BC), which share its philosophy. From his youth he was a follower of this philosopher, and although the latter did not leave written in life, thanks to Plato knows quite well his thinking document. However, from his mature period especially (386-370 BC) and fix its own philosophy. His doctrine is useful also to forge the ideas of his pupil Aristotle (Stagira, Macedonia, 384 a. C.-322 BC)
Most of the works of Plato (and best preserved) are written in dialogue form, and then take the common name of Platonic dialogues. The dialogues are usually divided into four phases, according to the author's life stages.
The early dialogues, ranging from 399-389 BC, are basically the collection and exhibition of Socratic philosophy. There are a lot, and can include, for example Apology of Socrates and Crito, both about Socrates, on the other hand lysis and Carmines, about values such as friendship or virtue of temperance, correspondingly.
Then transitional dialogues (389-385 BC) mixed elements of the philosophy of Socrates with other actual platonic. Some of them are: Gorgias, Hippias Major and Minor or Meno, who talk about the rhetoric, beauty and truth and teaching possible or not virtue, respectively. These dialogues show a variety of outrageously rich themes.
The dialogues of maturity are written between 386-370 BC They determined his philosophy Plato, away much of the initial influence he received from Socrates. The Republic, which will then be studied figure at this stage of the thinker. The remaining maturity transcendental dialogues are: Phaedo, the Symposium and Phaedrus, which are about the immortality of the soul, beauty or love. Perhaps the most distinct thematically's The Republic, by posing several, especially policies or issues regarding this, but also metaphysical and epistemological.
Finally, old age dialogues fall between 370 and 347 BC There are critical dialogue itself, in which the author reflects on their same theories. These are pre dialogues as is specified age, and are as follows: Parmenides, Theaetetus, Sophist and Statesman.
The dialogues of old age, however, include pessimistic trend as Laws, similar to The Republic approach but negatively expressed. Also another, known as the Timaeus. The latter inevitably turns into a religious cosmological reflection which predicts the death of Plato.
The work entitled The Republic, of which an analysis of one of the chapters below, place falls within the Platonic dialogues of maturity that were cited above. Exposes to perfection the philosophy of Plato, defining and consolidating their thinking through various themes: justice, politics, society, education, art, soul, good and evil, etc. The ideal vision is by them (eg, the ideal state). Thus, The Republic, to tell the Platonic philosophy is transcendental to know their perception, for example, metaphysics or epistemology.
-Comment Book X of Plato's Republic:
In general, the X of The Republic Paper is divided into two main themes: the critique of
poetry and explanation of the soul. In this case, the share of criticism of poetry will be analyzed. Plato makes a very clear distinction between the real and the apparential. Thus, the real comprises a single term: the so-called '' idea ''. Idea concept refers to the famous theory of ideas developed by philosopher said, which divides the world into two kinds: the sensible world and the intelligible world. Belong to the intelligible world of ideas, which are the entities that confer absolute reality. Everything else is purely apparential, and falls within the sensible world. That means that anything significant, ie that exists, is possible because there is a previous idea created by God of things to exist is worth, he says the tenth book of the Republic.
So what apparential, in this work, is so much created by a craftsman as created by an imitator. Exemplified the maker of beds, which uses the idea that God gives, for what is a bed and how to make it. This character is the architect. However, there is also an imitator, ie, one that reflects what the architect created. According to Plato, the latter character, whose occupation artist would not understand what it imitates, simply recreated. With this example, Plato makes a scale of truth, putting ideas as the only truly real, as cited above, and behind them would it created and imitated. Belonging latter two terms to apparential, first goes creation, since there because it is understood and done, and ultimately the imitated, that can not be emulated in an artistic representation except that before someone has built and putting manifest in reality. This leads to the conclusion that Plato believes that mimic, ie, the artist reconstructs what you see following his own perception of reality, plus the influence of his own thinking.
That is why placing the imitator in third place in the scale of truth. Thus, says a painter (artist) representing the bed created by the architect based on the absolute entity is offering his vision of furniture, which is nothing true, but it staff, fruit of contemplation single object.
Through this important example of the book, the philosopher perfectly defines the conception that he has of visual arts: a simple reflection of reality by the fact that what is unknown which mimics. And evidenced through its opinion on the painting, as the painter on the scale is so very far from the idea, really real, it is not useful any of the representations made, since they provide no truth or clever man knowledge.
However, Plato seeks to overturn his criticism in this text not so much to painting, but to poetry, which is also a apparential art and imitator of reality. Beyond that, his vision of painting is very useful to the Theory of Art and Art History in general, especially as it is a reflection on a visual art form. The theory of Plato's ideas, especially his theory of reality, will be crucial for the Philosophy of Art Aristotle, who considers art as a mimesis, which completes the reality, but not copy crudely. This conception of Aristotle be essential for art, and is based on the idea of Plato, but this has a rather negative view of the fact distancing from reality.
Looking back, accused of being pathetic poetry, it seeks to cause a commotion and / or catharsis in the listener. But does not provide any certain knowledge, as happens with painting or any other art. That does not provide any truth, it's just something that mimics the real, and also seek the awakening of emotions determines Plato's negative stance toward poetry. Even the thinker downgrade the status of this literature because it believes that awakens the irrational side of the soul, ie, impulses and passions of man. What is not rational for Plato is harmful and useless, and is evidenced by example that poetry is capable of reducing the heroes to the most primitive human feelings (strength, melancholy, sadness) through high virtues that just makes them special.
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