plato

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art appreciationWestern aesthetic(PLATO)


Group-8
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What is western aesthetic

• Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with
  the nature of art, beauty,
• appreciation of beauty.
• The word aesthetic is derived from the Greek
  (aesthetics, meaning "esthetic, sensitive.
• Modern spelling given by Alexander Baumgartenin
  1735.

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BIOGRAPHY

• Plato was a classical Greece philosopher.

• He was born in Athens, between 427-
• 347 B.C.E.

• Platos birth name was Aristocles (not to be
  confused with Aristotle) and he gained the
  nickname Platon because of his broad build.

• His father died when he was young.

• Son of wealthy and influential Athens.

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• When he was young, his basis of study was music
  and poetry.

• Served in the Athens army during the
  Peloponnesian War.

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PLATOs AND SOCRATES

• Plato was Socrates student.
• Socrates was Platos teacher and Plato started to
  adopt his philosophy style of debate.
• After Socrates death in 399 B.C., Plato left
  Athens with some friends and traveled for the
  next 12 years while studying geometry, geology,
  astronomy, and religion.
• Platos studies were directed toward the question
  of virtue the formation of noble character.

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The Academy
teacher
teacher
Aristotle

• In 386 BCE, he returned to Athens and founded his
  own school of philosophy, the ACADEMY. The 1st
  European University.
• The Academy continued until it was closed in 529
  CE, over 900 years.

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• Aristotle was a student at his Academy in
  Athens.
• At the Academy, he taught his subjects astronomy,
  biology, mathematics, political theory, and
  philosophy.
• Plato and Aristotle, shared a sense of the
  importance of aesthetics, and both regarded
  music, poetry, architecture, and drama as
  fundamental institutions within the body
  politic.

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His work
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Plato's influence on western culture generally
is a very strong one, and this includes a strong
influence on the arts, and on theories of
art Beauty, Justice, and The Circle are all
examples of what Plato called Forms or Ideas.
Other philosophers have called them
Universals. all artistic creation is a form of
imitation that which really exists (in the
"world of ideas") is a type created by God
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Plato had two theories of art.
Art is imitation
Art is powerful, and therefore
dangerous Art is imitation Imitation is
the commonest English translation of mimesis.
Alternatives include representation and
emulation. To make things confusing. Painting
is just the imitation of all the living things of
nature with their colors and designs just as they
are in nature.
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Most people still think that a picture must be a
picture of something, and that an artist is
someone who can make a picture that "looks just
like the real thing". In the Republic, Plato
says that art imitates the
objects and events of ordinary life. In other
words, a work of art is a copy of a copy of a
Form.
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Problems with the imitation theory least
believable as a theory about representational
painting, drawing and sculpture and it can be
stretched to fit some abstract work. Plato spoke
about music representing natural sounds, and
emotions, as did Aristotle. but even if one
agrees that music imitates emotions, could one
build a theory of music out of this fact
alone?
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2. Art is powerful, and therefore dangerous
Poetry, drama, music, painting, dance, all stir
up our emotions. All of the arts move people
powerfully Plato insisted that music (especially
music), along with poetry and drama and the other
arts, should be part of the education of young
citizens in his ideal republic
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Platos Philosophy
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• Plato was the first to unify a system of thought
  in Western society.
• We all begin with common sense beliefs, opinions,
  we are lead further to ideas, and principles.
• Human life always involves our fellow man and our
  personal and societal destiny.
• Philosophy is not specialized nor technical but a
  way of life.
• Everything has a truth or an essence, your job
  is to seek this truth.
• All humans have potential for virtue, goodness,
  and to shape good character.

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• The only good life or life worth living is a life
  reasoned by your own mind, not others ideas and
  opinions change your life and mind!
• Examine your life, history, and ideas, once you
  self examine, then you are ready for knowledge.
• All knowledge begins in not knowing. To state I
  dont know is the first step open to learning.
• Character is what is developed from this soul,
  and is molded and tested and shapeda dynamic
  process.

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The Dialogue Form
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The Dialogue Form

• Plato used the dialogue form of writing as the
  most effective means of presenting his
  philosophical ideas.
• Plato preferred instead to do something that
  would stimulate original thinking on the part of
  the reader.
• Finally, by using conversational method
  (dialogue), it would be possible to illustrate
  ways in which current issues of the day were
  related to one another.
• This is one of the reasons why none of Platos
  dialogues are devoted exclusively to the
  discussion of a single topic.

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Platos Theory of Knowledge

• Plato described how the human mind achieves
  knowledge, and indicated what knowledge consisted
  of, by means of
• 1) his allegory of the Cave
• 2) his metaphor of the divided line
• 3) his doctrine of the Forms

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Platos Allegory of The Cave
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Metaphor of the divided line.
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Theory of Forms

• The linchpin of Platonism is the theory of forms,
  a doctrine which receives surprisingly scant
  treatment in the dialogues but which nevertheless
  undergirds Plato's approach to ethics and
  metaphysics, aesthetics and epistemology. The
  theory is taken up in Book X of The Republic, is
  discussed in the Phaedo, taken apart in the
  Parmenides, and revisited in two later dialogues,
  the Timaeus and Laws.
• "What was this Theory of Forms?
• It originated out of several different and partly
  independent features of the general ideas or
  notions that constituted the recurrent themes of
  dialectical disputations.

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MAJOR CONTRIBUTION OF PLATO
Platos theory of Mimesis (imitation) The arts
deal with illusion or they are imitation of an
imitation. Twice removed from reality. He was
the first who inquired into the nature of
imaginative literature and put forward theories
which are both Illuminating and provocation. He
was poet dialogues full of poetic beauty
(dramatic quality).
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• The Republic, a philosophical work produced in
  380 BCE and still discussed in modern curriculum,
  is one of the more commonly known contributions
  of Plato.
• The Republic addresses justice and politics.
  Another contribution of Plato is The Academy, an
  institution at which students could study
  astronomy, biology, mathematics and politics.

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Platos major contribution was to the field of
psychology on the subject matter of metaphysis
his thoughts on the idea of the soul and its
tripartite division intuition,logistikon nous,
which he equated with the brain, and the active
emotions spiritness that reside in the chest,
served as a basis for futre psychologists and
there studies
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Platos education, like any other Athenian
boys was physical as well as mental he was
instructed in grammar (that is reading and
writing ), music, painting and gymnastics by
most distinguished teachers of his time.

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• Metaphysics is the study of the nature of things
  metaphysician ask what kind of things exist, and
  what they are like . They reason about such
  things as whether or not people have free will,
  in what sense abstract objects can be said to be
  exist,and how it is that brains are able to
  generate minds
• Celestial bodies are divine noble and their
  motions are uniform and circular around the earth.

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Plato often discussed the father-son
relationship and the question of whether
fathers interest in his sons has much to do with
how well his sons turn out.The wise person who
accepts the power thrust upon him by the people
who are wise enough to choose a good
master.The universe is a perfect sphere.
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The real world is the world of forms beyond
human senses and can be understood only by using
logic and not by observation and experiments
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