Philosophy Aesthetics and Art Social Sciences Research Paper

Philosophy Aesthetics and Art of Plato and Collingwood
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Aesthetics is the philosophical approach towards the appreciation of art and beauty. However, it is well known that the definition of art is vague and is often interchanged with craft. Most people, on the other hand, view art as a medium for self-expression to channel the strong emotions of the artists. These perspectives of art are observed in everyday interpretation of different people but these perspectives may had been rooted from different philosophical thoughts of great philosophers such as Plato and Robin George Collingwood. Plato's aesthetics connects art, such as poetry and painting, to be a form of craft work since both are nothing more than an imitation of an imitation. This way, Plato view poetry as a craft since poets just imitate the form of an object through spoken language for it to become an art. Additionally, Plato despise imitators since they only represent a loose rendition of the truth, thus, making them ignorant about distinguishing fiction from reality. On the other hand, Collingwood describes art to be independent against craft since the elements that makes craft a craft can be non-existent in art.[Nikolas Pappas, "Plato's Aesthetics," Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, last modified June 23, 2017, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato-aesthetics/#Imi.] [Christopher Janaway, Images of Excellence: Plato's Critique of the Arts (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995),36] [Joseph Maguire. "The Differentiation of Art in Plato's Aesthetics," Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, 68 (1964): 392-393, /stable/310813.] [Christopher Janaway. "Arts and Crafts in Plato and Collingwood," The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 50, no. 1 ( 1992): 45, /stable/431066.] [Jessica Moss. "What Is Imitative Poetry and Why Is It Bad?", The Cambridge Companion to Plato’s Republic, 415, doi:10.1017/ccol0521839637.015] [Janaway, "Arts and Crafts in Plato and Collingwood," 45.]
Although the definition of art is broad and dynamic from person to person, the perspectives of Plato and Collingwood on the similarities or the distinction between art and craft is necessary to understand whether art has a function or not. In this paper, the core concepts of Plato's aesthetics as art and craft are just imitation that is removed from the reality of forms and Collingwood's aesthetics that outlines the principles of art, which is separate from craft will be tackled to appreciate and understand these philosopher’s notion of philosophical aesthetics.
Understanding Plato's notion of art requires an understanding of his basic philosophies such as the tripartite soul. In Plato's philosophy regarding the tripartite soul, a person possesses an inner self that he called the soul. He formulated that the soul is composed of three parts: the rational soul, the spirited soul, and the appetitive soul. The rational soul is responsible for governing the self with reason and intellect. The Spirited soul governs the emotions an individual. The appetitive soul governs the desire of the individual of basic physical needs such as food, sleep, and sexual desires. Plato presented that the proper balance of the three soul is needed so that a person can be just and virtuous.[Robert Edgeworth. "The tripartite soul in Plato, Dostoyevsky, and Aldiss," Neophilologus, 78, no.3, (1994): 343, doi: 10.1007/bf01000354.] [Edgeworth. "The tripartite soul in Plato, Dostoyevsky, and Aldiss," 343.] [Edgeworth. "The tripartite soul in Plato, Dostoyevsky, and Aldiss," 343.] [Edgeworth. "The tripartite soul in Plato, Dostoyevsky, and Aldiss," 343.] [Edgeworth. "The tripartite soul in Plato, Dostoyevsky, and Aldiss," 343.] [Edgeworth. "The tripartite soul in Plato, Dostoyevsky, and Aldiss," 343.]
It is evident in Plato’s philosophy that he despises art since it creates imbalances in a person’s soul since it is only focused on triggering emotion. Emotion, according to the tripartite soul, is only based on feelings and lacks reason and intellectual properties that is needed to properly understand the truth. Therefore, arts, especially the performing arts like music, poetry and drama, produces emotional properties that boosts the spirited soul of a person and decrease rationality since its effect is based on feelings and cannot claim any factual knowledge or self-improvement based on feelings. Due to this notion, Plato viewed art as a powerful force that can shape and affect the characteristics of society, thus, Plato wanted to protect the true-self of each individual by opposing art.[Edgeworth. "The tripartite soul in Plato, Dostoyevsky, and Aldiss," 343.] [Janaway, Images of Excellence, 36] ["Plato," Rowan University, accessed November 30, 2019, http://users.rowan.edu/~clowney/Aesthetics/philos_artists_onart/plato.htm.]
In Plato's other works, he classified various art activities to be under the classification of technê. Technê is translated in platonic works as "art" or "craft" but it most resemble a "profession" which both denotes a paying occupation and the expertise to create the craft. During Plato's era, art is mostly represented by poetry. He classified poetry under the concept of techne since the poets lack knowledge and can be compared with the work of a craftsmen. Plato discussed that poetry as a craft since the poets has the expertise to produce poems that a poet produces for the consumers, which in turn creates differences in the states of mind of the people. Plato described a poet as a kind of craftsman that has the experience and perception to produce a desired product. In other words, poetry in the means to an end of triggering the people’s emotion.[Janaway, Images of Excellence,37] [Pappas, "Plato's Aesthetics."] [Pappas, "Plato's Aesthetics."] [Janaway, Images of Excellence,37] [Janaway, Images of Excellence, 37] [Janaway, Images of Excellence, 37] [Janaway, Images of Excellence, 38]
Additionally, like the craftsman, poetry is made using representations of objects that is translated to spoken material. For example, a craftsman can make a table using a predefined notion of what is a table an imitate that form to make a new one. The same is true about poetry, according to Plato, since poets just describe objects based on the form to imitate its general appearance, thus, art is an imitation or “mimesis”. But what does art imitate? According to Plato, art is best known for imitating the objects and daily events of a person's ordinary life. Art creates a subjective illusion of reality that is based on the "delusions" of the artist. Art then is an imitation of an already existing form that falls short of the truth.[Pappa, "Plato's Aesthetics"] [Pappa, "Plato's Aesthetics"] ["Plato," Rowan University.] ["Plato," Rowan University.] ["Plato," Rowan University.]
Plato presented his theses against poetic mimesis in the tenth book of The Republic. Poetic mimêsis is the imitation based on appearance produces results that are far from the truth. People often fails to distinguish the difference between imitation and reality and accepts the ignorant imitators. Since ignorance is evil in the eyes of Plato, imitation strengthens the weaknesses of the human soul that focuses on feelings rather than the truth. Poetic mimêsis corrupts rationality and weakens a person’s control over his/her desires, making a person succumb to vices and immorality; therefore, poetry should be banned or controlled.[Pappas, "Plato's Aesthetics."] [Moss, "What Is Imitative Poetry and Why Is It Bad?", 415] [Moss, "What Is Imitative Poetry and Why Is It Bad?", 415] [Pappas, "Plato's Aesthetics."]
Plato also presented his discussion of imitation using paintings to clearly illustrate the concept. When a painter paints, the painter uses a model or an object to be copied like jars, fruits or tables instead of Forms. The painter is just copying the appearance and decreases the degree of truth of the objects when being copied in art. Plato pointed out that all material objects came from a single immaterial "Form" that has the ideal likeness of a perfect object. However, there are no perfect objects that exist in the world; therefore, the "Form" is the absolute truth and the likeness of that object that is made in the material world is the true object. However, if the material object is turned into a visual or auditory imitation, such as a paintings and poetry, to represent the object, the painting or poetry is degrading the original form of an object three degrees away from the truth.[Moss, "What Is Imitative Poetry and Why Is It Bad?", 416] [Moss, "What Is Imitative Poetry and Why Is It Bad?", 416] [Moss, "What Is Imitative Poetry and Why Is It Bad?", 418] [Moss, "What Is Imitative Poetry and Why Is It Bad?", 418] [Moss, "What Is Imitative Poetry and Why Is It Bad?", 418]
Consider the still life painting "The Basket Apples" by Paul Cezane. In the Basket of Apples, Cezanne presented a composition w...