[MD] Plato & imitation

[Ron Kulp]

> On Aug 26, 2014, at 3:11 PM, Ant McWatt <antmcwatt at hotmail.co.uk> wrote:
> 
> Otherwise, I should note that Patrick Doorly points out in his MOQ text "THE TRUTH ABOUT ART" that Plato's regard of the fine arts as being largely imitative was not really challenged in Western Academia until Ernst Gombrich wrote his famous (infamous?) essay about a hobby horse in 1950.  A hobby horse, as Gombrich points out, does not imitate a horse (a wild horse does not have a wheel for instance!) but rather acts as a "substitute".

Ron:
What I got from the Stanford piece,
Was that Plato was aiming at Greek
Tragedy mainly. In that respect,
He aimed specifically at stereotypes
And characeture . It was all about creating the best forms in the ideal
Republic ( keeping in mind the dialogue began with the question
Of knowing a man, that you best
Know him through the society 
He participates in.)
Long and short, they didn't go in
For satire at the worst and racial stereotyping at best, probably would frown on impersonators, and impostors. As I understand it 
Credited with the decline of Greek 
Tragedy .


.