An age old debate wonders whether art imitates life, or if life imitates art. As well as this, philosophers and writers also discuss the place of art and artists within an ideal society. Plato and Oscar Wilde take up these opposing points of view in the Republic, and “The Decay of Lying,” respectively.
Plato makes his point in his masterpiece, the Republic, that an ideal state should not allow artists and their works. He states his reason for this as the fact that artists counterfeit ideas from nature. He believes that all things exist in a most pure form, an “essence,” that humans base all other copies of such an object off of. “Then if he does not make that which exists he cannot make true existence, but only some semblance of existence; and if any one were to say that the work of the maker of the bed, or of any other workman, has real existence, he could hardly be supposed to be speaking the truth.” By saying this, Plato explains that because all works made by humans contain flaws, they cannot compare to the “essence.” He continues to remark that this “essence” can only exist as one thing, because “if [God] had made but two, a third would still appear behind them which both of them would have for their idea, and that would be the ideal [one] and the two others.” He refers to those who create such copies as “imitators.” He employs this train of logic to point out to his companion his idea that this ideal object represents the truest form of the object, and any copy of an it lays at a point a degree away from the truth. …show more content…
Similarly, this extends to artists. Because artists make copies of the copies, they create art at two degrees away from the truth. As Plato discusses artists, he added that artists do not focus on creating a perfect facsimile of the option, which furthers the divide from the “essence.” At the conclusion of his discussion, Plato commands to Glaucon that “hymns to the gods and praises of famous men are the only poetry which ought to be admitted into our State.” Oscar Wilde, on the other hand, makes a rebuttal to this argument thousands of years later. In The Decay of Lying, a conversation between two people called Cyril and Vivian, Wilde disputes Plato’s ideas. It begins with Vivian expressing his distaste for nature, ranting that “Art really reveals to us [...] Nature’s lack of design, her curious crudities, her extraordinary monotony, her absolutely unfinished condition.” In this quote, he emphasizes the imperfection of nature to rebutt Plato’s idea of a perfect “essence” of thing. Additionally, Wilde mentions sophists, possibly satirizing Plato’s use of logic to disallow certain people in his republic. Wilde discussing the tale of George Washington and the cherry tree, saying it “has done more harm, and in a shorter space of time, than any other moral tale in the whole of literature.” His reasoning for this appears when he mentions the irony that although Americans believe a story of their founder’s honesty, the story itself contains little truth. The author also includes a story about Japan, saying that the art and style of Japan provides English people with an idea of Japan that does not really
Plato makes his point in his masterpiece, the Republic, that an ideal state should not allow artists and their works. He states his reason for this as the fact that artists counterfeit ideas from nature. He believes that all things exist in a most pure form, an “essence,” that humans base all other copies of such an object off of. “Then if he does not make that which exists he cannot make true existence, but only some semblance of existence; and if any one were to say that the work of the maker of the bed, or of any other workman, has real existence, he could hardly be supposed to be speaking the truth.” By saying this, Plato explains that because all works made by humans contain flaws, they cannot compare to the “essence.” He continues to remark that this “essence” can only exist as one thing, because “if [God] had made but two, a third would still appear behind them which both of them would have for their idea, and that would be the ideal [one] and the two others.” He refers to those who create such copies as “imitators.” He employs this train of logic to point out to his companion his idea that this ideal object represents the truest form of the object, and any copy of an it lays at a point a degree away from the truth. …show more content…
Similarly, this extends to artists. Because artists make copies of the copies, they create art at two degrees away from the truth. As Plato discusses artists, he added that artists do not focus on creating a perfect facsimile of the option, which furthers the divide from the “essence.” At the conclusion of his discussion, Plato commands to Glaucon that “hymns to the gods and praises of famous men are the only poetry which ought to be admitted into our State.” Oscar Wilde, on the other hand, makes a rebuttal to this argument thousands of years later. In The Decay of Lying, a conversation between two people called Cyril and Vivian, Wilde disputes Plato’s ideas. It begins with Vivian expressing his distaste for nature, ranting that “Art really reveals to us [...] Nature’s lack of design, her curious crudities, her extraordinary monotony, her absolutely unfinished condition.” In this quote, he emphasizes the imperfection of nature to rebutt Plato’s idea of a perfect “essence” of thing. Additionally, Wilde mentions sophists, possibly satirizing Plato’s use of logic to disallow certain people in his republic. Wilde discussing the tale of George Washington and the cherry tree, saying it “has done more harm, and in a shorter space of time, than any other moral tale in the whole of literature.” His reasoning for this appears when he mentions the irony that although Americans believe a story of their founder’s honesty, the story itself contains little truth. The author also includes a story about Japan, saying that the art and style of Japan provides English people with an idea of Japan that does not really