What Philosophy Is

Art and Society

As you read the material for the next class, keep the questions below in mind. To answer these questions you will have to reflect critically on what you have read and possibly re-read important passages. Keep in mind that there are two basic kinds of information that you need to look for in the readings.

  1. What are the main points or conclusions that an author accepts with respect to a particular issue?
  2. What are the reasons or important considerations that lead the author to accept that conclusion?

For our purposes, it is information of the latter sort (2) that will be our primary concern since our most basic task is to evaluate the reasons that are offered to support accepting one possible conclusion about an issue, rather than another.

Although I strongly suggest that you write out brief answers to these questions, you do not have to turn in written responses. You do, however, need to be prepared to speak intelligently to these issues in the next class meeting. Also, it is reasonable to assume that the final exam’s questions will be drawn from these questions—particularly those in bold.

Readings:

  • Plato, Republic (handout).
  • Aristotle, Poetics (handout).

Questions:

  1. In general, why does Plato believe that the young cannot just hear any stories concerning religion or death? What reasons does Plato give for restricting poets to only tell stories about the gods where a god is only the cause of good things? What reasons does he give for “deleting” certain passages about death from the works of Homer and other poets? Similarly, why can’t heroes be shown lamenting and crying over lost loved ones? Do these restrictions only apply to poets and other artists? According to Plato, why do imitators (i.e., artists) lack real knowledge? Why are their imitations able to corrupt even decent people?
  2. According to Aristotle, why is imitation both natural and pleasurable to human beings? What is Tragedy supposed to imitate? What is the difference between a poet and a historian? Why does Aristotle approve of the poet, even though he or she is an imitator and not a reporter of facts, like a historian?
  3. Given that they reach different conclusions concerning art, Plato and Aristotle cannot both be right. Where exactly in their respective arguments do they disagree? Which position is supported by the strongest and most compelling argument?What are the three conditions that make up a “justified true belief”?

 

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