Plato and Aristotle

Plato defined art as a mimesis of reality. He pictured the artist as a nincompoop with a few skills, but no knowledge of his subject. For Plato, the artist was a dull fellow, simply holding a mirror to nature, imitating it without purpose or thought. He saw that most artists were disconnected from the things they depicted; they had no knowledge of it and didn't bother seeking knowledge before replicating the thing's external appearance.

He thought there are problems with the imitation. First of all the epistemological, an imitation is at three removes from the reality or truth of something. When he thought of ordinary carpenters, he saw that they created things that copied the ideal form. The carpenter pondered the ideal form of a table and set to work imitating that in the physical world. The artist, however, was further removed from the world of ideals. The artist, he perceived, imitated the carpenter's imitation and was thus three times removed from the original. Where the carpenter copied the perfect form, the artist copied one specific copy of a perfect form. The carpenter, at least knew about his table - how the legs fit into the body, how to construct it. The carpenter would consult the inevitable user of the table to find out the most appeasing qualities of a table, whereas the artist would only copy the external appearance of the table, without making any knowledge-seeking inquiries. He just dumbly replicated. He held this as utterly contemptible.

Secondly, theological: Poets and other artists represent the gods in inappropriate ways. Since for Plato, our rational nature is the only one which allows us to solve our problems, he saw that art was harmful and led people in the wrong direction. He wanted the focus shifted to Philosophy, and dreamed of a rational society where everything ran smoothly.

Lastly, Moral and Psychological: A good imitation can undermine the stability of even the best humans by making us feel sad, depressed, and sorrowful about life itself.

But on the other hand, Aristotle thoughts mimesis was not some mindless mirror-holding, but a thoughtful way of reflecting specific truths about nature. He saw that human beings, from birth, learn by the imitation of our parents and peers. He saw that mimesis brings us delight and instructs us. Aristotle saw the artist as an expert editor of reality, one who craftily selected snippets of life and reflected those pertinent victuals to relate truths about the world. For Aristotle, there was one world-ours-and the artist wasn't merely imitating appearance, but was re-creating truths. He compared the artist with other people associated with the playing-with of reality and existence: The Historian and The Philosopher/Scientist. He saw The Historian as someone who carefully chronicled all the things that have happened, The Philosopher/Scientist as someone who dealt with general truths about what might happen, and The Artist as a