Plato: Art, Representation and the Truth
An Introduction to Book Ten of Plato's The Republic
Nov 18, 2008
Book Ten of Plato’s Republic contains Plato’s thoughts and ideas on what the role of poetry in society should be. Like the remainder of the book, the discussion of poetry takes the form of a dialogue between Plato and Socrates.
Plato’s judgement on the role of poetry is damning. In the opening of the book Plato states: ‘Such representations definitely harm the minds of their audiences, unless they’re inoculated against them by knowing their real nature.’ (Plato, 2007, p.421)
The Three Beds
Plato goes on to talk about representation, using the image of a bed. He explains that when we talk about a bed, there are actually three beds. The first is the bed made by god. The second is the bed made by the carpenter and finally, the third bed is made by the painter. (Plato, 2007, p.424) This is like a process: God creates the original bed, the idea of a bed. The carpenter manufactures beds and the painter creates representations of the bed. This is a simple example used to demonstrate the point that Plato will go on to make.
The point of this illustration is that, according to Plato, the artist, or poet, only ever represents the thing that the other two have created. As logically follows, the artist’s representation of the bed is ‘at third removed from reality.’ (Plato, 2007, pg.425) If the representation is removed from reality, then it cannot be an accurate portrayal.
Homer
Plato uses Homer to demonstrate this point, who, despite being one of the greatest poets the world has ever known, cannot be said to have produced anything accurate. Plato says that we should remember that although Homer wrote about war, strategy and politics, he had no experience of any of these things. He never commanded an army in any wars, nor did he have any practical skills of this sort.
Therefore, even the great poet Homer has no real knowledge or ‘grasp of truth but merely produce a superficial likeness of any subject they treat.’ (Plato, 2007, p.429)
Thus, poetry is dangerous because it appears to us to be the truth, something that we can relate to. In fact it is the opposite: poetry and art is deceitful, it is something that ‘wakens and encourages the lower elements in the mind to the detriment of reason.’ (Plato, 2007, p.435) For these reasons, Plato argued, we should be on our guard against art.
References:
Plato, 2007, The Republic, United Kingdom: Penguin Books Ltd. Pg. 421-439
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