Overview on Plato's Philosophy of Art and Beauty

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Art and Beauty According to Plato

Four Themes

1. Prophetic : Techne, or the generic idea of art


2. Initiatory : the mimesis of art


3. Poetic : the poetic inspiration


4. Erotic : madness and its connection to beauty

Artists measure the ability to achieve their ends

• proper length of speech


• proper proportion of a painting


• proper distributions of functions in society


• proper organisation of language in a poem

The highest art is that of the Divine maker
Arts are performed as imitations of external orders of existence, there is true imitation (eikastike) and false imitation (phantastike).

Divinity, according to Plato, is the highest degree of all measurable things exemplified in one immobile being. All things are put into motion by the divine being, but the divine being is put into motion by nothing. The more perfect a thing becomes, the further from earth it will be.

The poet is inspired by divinity
Man cannot raise himself to the genuinely poetic without divine assistance.