Analysis Of Karl Popper's The Open Society

In his work "The Open Society and its Enemies" Karl Popper argues that Plato is one of the most influential philosophers on the emergence of totalitarian regimes in the 20th century, laying the foundations for their very existence. Although seemingly trivial at first, Plato's complete ban of imitative poetry from his ideal city, when considered within its proper context, exemplifies and supports Popper's view - Plato's philosophy in the Republic is anti-individualist, anti-democratic, and prevents positive social change. His argument for banning imitative poetry, as I will show throughout this essay, is indefensible.
I will begin with a discussion of the most common interpretation of Plato’s attitude towards imitative poetry, and the reasoning …show more content…
She argues that the distinction between apparent excellence and actual excellence “parallels the difference between…. the many beautiful things and the form of beauty” (J. Moss, “What is imitative poetry and why is it bad?”, p. 430). Following Plato’s criticism of democracy, in which he likens it to “a multicoloured cloak embroidered with every ornament” (557c4-9) – “disordered” and “motley”, rather than “beautiful or fine” (J. Moss), she claims that what is apparently excellent is “varied and contradictory”, whilst what is actually good is stable and uniform. In imitative poetry, varied and contradictory characters thus appear excellent, when in reality they are “viscous”. Therefore, spectators believe poets to be experts in human affairs, when in fact they are taking viscous characters as role models, and resultantly their souls are …show more content…
Both, teacher and student, however, agree that there exists a direct connection between our reactions to poetry and our reactions to life. But, whilst Plato held that the imitativeness of poetry harms the soul, as explained, Aristotle believed that poetry can have beneficial effects, including helping to clarify our emotional responses. Aristotle also believed, contrary to Plato, that imitation has natural roots: there exists, “a human instinct for mimesis [imitation]”, illustrated through the learning of children (this justification for the instinctive nature of imitation has since been supported psychological research, notably that of Bandura (1961), whereby young children imitated an aggressive adult role model), and “a human capacity to take pleasure in mimesis…which Aristotle interprets…as due to the enjoyment of learning and understanding” (S. Halliwell, Aristotle’s Poetics, p.