Plato's View at Art

Art is Essentially Mimesis
1. art was useless:
a. it serves no useful purpose in society.
b. as a "imitation of nature" it added no knowledge. (no intellectual value)
*the same value could be added by simply by holding up a mirror to the world which would be far less costly.
c. according his metaphysics, art is an imitation of  an imitation, thus barely real at all.

Art was potentially dangerous for several reasons:

2. Art was essentially deceptive.
a.  the whole aim of art was to deceive. Success was achieved when the spectator mistook an imitation for reality.
b. Furthermore, artists were unconcerned with facts/ truth. It made no difference to artists nor to the success of their works whether the images or stories they depict were real or their messages true or good.

3. Art was mainly concerned with sensual pleasure.
a. Art seems directed entirely towards pleasing the senses and ignoring the mind, intellect, or concepts.
* Platonic Mind/Body Dualism---- our bodies are the least valuable, least permanent, least "real" aspects    of our personalities.
* Plato's Rationalism---- our senses are incapable of providing us with genuine knowledge since they only gather impressions from an ever changing physical world but not immaterial/ invisible forces which guide, direct and sustain the physical world.
Thus our senses and, consequently, art are "metaphysically" misguided since it is directed towards illusion and not "reality." Further, Art serves to perpetuate and sustain this misdirection, keeping us ignorant of truth, justice, goodness and "real" beauty.
b. Art was mainly concerned with sensual pleasure.
* "Allegory of the Cave"
c. Art is psychologically de-stabilizing.
* "Poetry feeds and waters the passions instead of drying them up; she lets them rule, although they ought to be controlled, if mankind are ever to increase in happiness and virtue".
d. Art leads to immorality.
1) Art was unconcerned with morality, sometimes even teaching immoral lessons.  Morality, it would seem, has nothing to do with a work's success as art.
2) Plato worries that such art would encourage immorality in the citizens of this state.
e. Art was politically dangerous, a threat to the common good.

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:cqbBVE2yzw8J:www2.fiu.edu/~hauptli/TheMimeticTheoryofArt.ppt+plato's+views+on+art&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESiHZN74fm5BUNSowlk0ZUjFUvtgUpgYzxKdZUph3_gchNKruOTGnkU--QALpoMUHPy-q6Vk4eBXTD9DRd_asXdUdNzQUwYU7FZbYV-C-ewBbP5bPMMo1-QwdkTeKkgh20a2l4p7&sig=AHIEtbR1PmUyTJjRt0Pj-inWImbIuq2nXw