Inspiration and mimesis in Plato's criticism of poetry

Plato criticizes poetry in several of his dialogues, beginning with Apology, his first work, and ending with Laws, his last. In these dialogues, his criticism of poetry can be divided into two streams: poetry is criticized for either being divinely inspired, or because it is mimetic or imitative of reality. However, of the dialogues which criticize poetry in these ways, it is not until Laws that Plato mentions both inspiration and mimesis together, and then it is only in a few sentences. Furthermore, nowhere in the dialogues does Plato discuss their relationship. This situation has a parallel in the secondary literature. While much work has been done on inspiration or mimesis in Plato’s criticism of poetry, very little work exists which discusses the connection between them. This study examines Plato’s treatment - in the six relevant dialogues - of these two poetic elements, inspiration and mimesis, and shows that a relationship exists between them. Both can be seen to relate to two important Socratic-Platonic concerns: the care of the soul and the welfare of the state. These concerns represent a synthesis of Socratic moral philosophy with Platonic political beliefs. In the ‘inspiration’ dialogues, Ion, Apology, Meno, Phaedrus and Laws, poetic inspiration can affect the Socratic exhortation which considers the care of the individual soul. Further, as we are told in Apology, Crito and Gorgias, it is the good man, the virtuous man - the one who cares for his soul - who also cares for the welfare of the state. Therefore, in its effect on the individual soul, poetic inspiration can also indirectly affect the state. In the ‘mimesis’ dialogues, Republic and Laws, this same exhortation, on the care of the soul, is posed, but it is has now been rendered into a more Platonic form - as either the principle of specialization - the ‘one man, one job’ creed of Republic, which advances the harmony between the three elements of the soul, or as the concord between reason and emotion in Laws. While in Republic, mimesis can damage the tripartite soul's delicate balance, in Laws, mimesis in poetry is used to promote the concord. Further, in both these dialogues, poetic mimesis can affect the welfare of the state. In Republic, Socrates notes that states arc but a product of the individuals of which they are composed Therefore, by affecting the harmony of the individual soul, mimesis can then undermine the harmony of the state, and an imperfect political system, such as a timarchy, an oligarchy, a democracy, or a tyranny, can result. However, in Laws, when it is harnessed by the philosophical lawgivers, mimesis can assist in the concord between the rulers and the ruled, thus serving the welfare of the state. Inspiration and mimesis can thus be seen to be related in their effect on the education of both the individual, in the care of the soul, and the state, in its welfare. Plato's criticism of poetry, therefore, which is centred on these two features, addresses common Platonic concerns: in education, politics, ethics, epistemology and psychology.

The Sophists (Ancient Greek)

The sophists were itinerant professional teachers and intellectuals who frequented Athens and other Greek cities in the second half of the fifth century B.C.E. In return for a fee, the sophists offered young wealthy Greek men an education in aretē (virtue or excellence), thereby attaining wealth and fame while also arousing significant antipathy. Prior to the fifth century B.C.E., aretē was predominately associated with aristocratic warrior virtues such as courage and physical strength. In democratic Athens of the latter fifth century B.C.E., however, aretē was increasingly understood in terms of the ability to influence one’s fellow citizens in political gatherings through rhetorical persuasion; the sophistic education both grew out of and exploited this shift. The most famous representatives of the sophistic movement are Protagoras, Gorgias, Antiphon, Hippias, Prodicus and Thrasymachus.

The historical and philological difficulties confronting an interpretation of the sophists are significant. Only a handful of sophistic texts have survived and most of what we know of the sophists is drawn from second-hand testimony, fragments and the generally hostile depiction of them in Plato’s dialogues.

The philosophical problem of the nature of sophistry is arguably even more formidable. Due in large part to the influence of Plato and Aristotle, the term sophistry has come to signify the deliberate use of fallacious reasoning, intellectual charlatanism and moral unscrupulousness. It is, as the article explains, an oversimplification to think of the historical sophists in these terms because they made genuine and original contributions to Western thought. Plato and Aristotle nonetheless established their view of what constitutes legitimate philosophy in part by distinguishing their own activity – and that of Socrates – from the sophists. If one is so inclined, sophistry can thus be regarded, in a conceptual as well as historical sense, as the ‘other’ of philosophy.

Perhaps because of the interpretative difficulties mentioned above, the sophists have been many things to many people. For Hegel (1995/1840) the sophists were subjectivists whose sceptical reaction to the objective dogmatism of the presocratics was synthesised in the work of Plato and Aristotle. For the utilitarian English classicist George Grote (1904), the sophists were progressive thinkers who placed in question the prevailing morality of their time. More recent work by French theorists such as Jacques Derrida (1981) and Jean Francois-Lyotard (1985) suggests affinities between the sophists and postmodernism.

This article provides a broad overview of the sophists, and indicates some of the central philosophical issues raised by their work. Section 1 discusses the meaning of the term sophist. Section 2 surveys the individual contributions of the most famous sophists. Section 3 examines three themes that have often been taken as characteristic of sophistic thought: the distinction between nature and convention, relativism about knowledge and truth and the power of speech. Finally, section 4 analyses attempts by Plato and others to establish a clear demarcation between philosophy and sophistry.

Agatón : La Belleza de Narciso

El encomio del trágico Agatón es un intermedio musical, una canción que detiene la avanzada conceptual del Banquete, pero con gravísimo poder proléptico. Se recupera todo lo dicho hasta allí, pero tergiversado por su enfoque de marcada impronta gorgiana. Cada comensal conlleva la concepción compuesta Amor-Belleza, donde todo amor es amor de cierta belleza. Distinguiendo el éros presentado por Agatón (erótica narcisista) intentaremos mostrar qué tipo de belleza nos presenta este comensal, y cuál es la poesía que le corresponde. Entonces se dará un agón paratextual, una referencia al gran combate que Platón sostuvo toda su vida: el conflicto entre filosofía y poesía. Mostraremos que Agatón, a la vez Narciso, poeta mimético, inspirado, poseso y cosmético, es la imagen del poeta que el filósofo ateniense detesta, que, como paradigma construido para este diálogo, tiene todos los defectos criticados a lo largo de la obra platónica y sirve para tematizar este enfrentamiento

Agatón : La Belleza de Narciso

El encomio del trágico Agatón es un intermedio musical, una canción que detiene la avanzada conceptual del Banquete, pero con gravísimo poder proléptico. Se recupera todo lo dicho hasta allí, pero tergiversado por su enfoque de marcada impronta gorgiana. Cada comensal conlleva la concepción compuesta Amor-Belleza, donde todo amor es amor de cierta belleza. Distinguiendo el éros presentado por Agatón (erótica narcisista) intentaremos mostrar qué tipo de belleza nos presenta este comensal, y cuál es la poesía que le corresponde. Entonces se dará un agón paratextual, una referencia al gran combate que Platón sostuvo toda su vida: el conflicto entre filosofía y poesía. Mostraremos que Agatón, a la vez Narciso, poeta mimético, inspirado, poseso y cosmético, es la imagen del poeta que el filósofo ateniense detesta, que, como paradigma construido para este diálogo, tiene todos los defectos criticados a lo largo de la obra platónica y sirve para tematizar este enfrentamiento

Agatón : La Belleza de Narciso

El encomio del trágico Agatón es un intermedio musical, una canción que detiene la avanzada conceptual del Banquete, pero con gravísimo poder proléptico. Se recupera todo lo dicho hasta allí, pero tergiversado por su enfoque de marcada impronta gorgiana. Cada comensal conlleva la concepción compuesta Amor-Belleza, donde todo amor es amor de cierta belleza. Distinguiendo el éros presentado por Agatón (erótica narcisista) intentaremos mostrar qué tipo de belleza nos presenta este comensal, y cuál es la poesía que le corresponde. Entonces se dará un agón paratextual, una referencia al gran combate que Platón sostuvo toda su vida: el conflicto entre filosofía y poesía. Mostraremos que Agatón, a la vez Narciso, poeta mimético, inspirado, poseso y cosmético, es la imagen del poeta que el filósofo ateniense detesta, que, como paradigma construido para este diálogo, tiene todos los defectos criticados a lo largo de la obra platónica y sirve para tematizar este enfrentamiento

The dialogues of Plato,

v. 1. Charmides. Lysis. Laches. Protagoras. Euthydemus. Cratylus. Phaedrus. Ion. Symposium.--v. 2. Meno. Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo, Gorgias, Appendix I: Lesser Hippias, Alcibiades I. Menexenus. Appendix II: Alcibiades II. Eryxias.--v. 3. Republic. Timaeus. Critias.--v. 4. Parmenides. Theaetetus. Sophist. Statesman. Philebus.--v. 5. Laws. Index to the writings of Plato.

The works of Plato. A new and literal version chiefly from the text of Stallbaum ...

Vol. I translated by Henry Cary, vol. II, by Henry Davis, vols. III-VI, by George Burges.

The works of Plato /

v. 1. The Apology of Socrates, Crito, Phaedo, Gorgias, Protagoras, Phaedrus, Theaetetus, Euthyphron, and Lysis -- v. 2. The Republic, Timaeus, and Critias -- v. 3. Meno, Euthydemus, The sophist, The statesman, Cratylus, Parmenides, and the Banquet -- v. 4. Philebus, Charmides, Laches, Menexenus, Hippias major, Hippias minor, Ion, First Alcibiades, Second Alcibiades, Theages, The rivals, Hipparchus. Minos, Clitopho, The epistles -- v. 5. The laws -- v. 6. The doubtful works ... with lives by Plato by Diogenes Laertius, Hesychius, and Olympiodorus; introductions to his doctrines, by Alcinous and Albinus; the notes of Thomas Gray, and a general index.

Oeuvres complètes de Platon.

Contiene: I, Phédon-Gorgias-Le Banquet

Platonis Opera quae feruntur omnia : ad codices denuo collatos /

Text in Greek; introd. and notes in Latin.

Dialogi selecti;

v.1-2, 2d ed.

Ausgewählte schriften ... /

pt. 1. Vertheidigungsrede des Sokrates und Kriton -- pt. 2. Gorgias / 5. aufl., neu bearb. von W. Nestle.

Platon's werke einzeln erklärt und in ihrem zusammenhange dargestellt,

Vol. 2-3, Erfurt, C. Villaret.

Ausgewählte schriften für den schulgebrauch erklärt

1.t.--2.t. Gorgias. 5. aufl. neu bearb von W. Nestle. 1909.--4.t. Protagoras. 6. aufl. neu bearb. von W. Nestle. 1910.--5.t. Symposium erklärt von A. Hug. 3. aufl. besorgt von H. Schöne. 1909.--6.t. Phaedon, erklärt von M. Wohlrab. 4., verb. aufl. 1908.