Saturday, September 4, 2010

Aristole V Plato's view on art

After reading Against Interpretation by Sontag, I've learned that Plato and Aristotle each had their own unique view on art. While Plato thinks that art is useless because they are merely imitations of objects that already imitate other things, Aristotle views art as a form of therapy. I have to say however that even as someone who isn't artistic at all, I have to disagree with Plato that art is useless, because I believe that art does play a role in our everyday lives. For an example, in psychology art can determine a person's personality, art can be therapeutic and it can be use to treat many psychological disorders. To conclude, the reason why Plato views art as something not particularly useful is because he had a different definition of art, he views art as only something on paper, while art can be in many different forms.

1 comment:

  1. I too believed that Plato's view on art was completely wrong and that Aristotle still did not value art as highly as it should be seen. Even the simplest works of art can have deep meanings that produce a profound effect on their viewers.

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