Imitation; Truthful or Deceptive? The concept of art to Plato and Aristotle

As literary critics, Plato and Aristotle disagree profoundly about the value of art in human society. Plato attempts to strip artists of the power and prominence they enjoy in his society, while Aristotle tries to develop a method of inquiry to determine the merits of an individual work of art. It is interesting to note that these two disparate notions of art are based upon the same fundamental assumption: that art is a form of mimesis, of imitation. Both philosophers are concerned with the artist?s ability to have significant impact on others. It is the imitative function of art which p…