Plato on Art and Beauty

This unique collection of essays focuses on various aspects of Plato's Philosophy of Art, not only in The Republic, but in the Phaedrus, Symposium, Laws and related dialogues. The range of issues addressed includes the contest between philosophy and poetry, the moral status of music, the love of beauty, censorship, motivated emotions.

This unique collection of essays presents various aspects of Plato's views on art and beauty, not only in the Republic but in the Ion, Phaedrus, Symposium, Laws and related dialogues. The selection aims to address a representative range of issues including the moral status of music and visual art, the allure of artistic and sensual beauty, censorship, the relations between aesthetic and moral emotions, truth and deception in art, and the contest between philosophy and poetry. The essays are not exclusively interpretive, although some (such as those by G. R. F. Ferrari, Jessica Moss and C. D. C. Reeve) are close scholarly readings of specific dialogues. Others authors, including M. F. Burnyeat and Stephen Halliwell, aim to locate Plato's thinking on art and beauty within wider controversies in ethics, politics and aesthetics. A common thread uniting them is their appreciation of the extent to which certain of Plato's texts are contributions to aesthetic and moral psychology, as much as exercises in metaphysics and epistemology.

Preface Acknowledgements Notes on the Contributors Abbreviations Editor's Introduction PART I: WHY CENSOR THE ARTISTS? UNDERSTANDING PLATO'S QUARREL From The Fire and the Sun: Why Plato Banished the Artists
I.Murdoch Plato and the Mass Media
A.Nehamas Art and Mimesis in Plato's Republic
M.F.Burnyeat PART II: ART AND BEAUTY: BEFORE AND BEYOND REPUBLIC X Plato's Early Aesthetics: The Hippias Major
D.Sider A Divinity Moving You: Inspiration and Knowledge in the Ion
D.Barchana-Lorand The Philosopher's Antidote
G.R.F.Ferrari Plato on Tragic and Comic Pleasures
P.Destree Plato on Begetting in Beauty
C.D.C.Reeve Beyond the Mirror of Nature: Plato's Ethics of Visual Form
S.Halliwell Art and Ethical Perspective: Notes on the Kalon in Plato's Laws
J.Moss Index