Preface

The word aesthetics is origin from the Greek word “aisthetikos” means the sensible object. In the eighteenth century it became a branch of philosophy. I agree that aesthetics has a strong relationship with sensation. Because when people talk about beauty, or to define beauty. it starts with self-perception and sensation. In linguistic way, the negative form of aesthetics is anesthetic. Which a medicine degree the sensitive of sensation. Nowadays, aesthetic is not only a topic of philosophy but also highly related with others subject. Such as architecture, design, literature. All in all, we called it art. Aesthetic is a major which discuss about art. What is beauty and what is ugly. I will briefly demonstrate the Plato’s aesthetics and Aristotle’s aesthetics and find out the difference between them.

Plato’s Aesthetics

Plato believes that art and poetry are imitations and demotions of real life. Base on Plato’s “Mimesis”. He thinks the real life is the imitation of ideal life, and the art is imitation of real life. In ancient Greece, poetry had a high status. People will sing poetry in public as a tradition. But Plato thinks poetry is untrue and immoral. He put poetry and art on the opposite side of philosophy. In his metaphysics of binary relations, art is nothing more than a simple imitation of real life. In Plato’s “Republic“He forbids poets and artists from entering his ideal country. I think Plato’s negation of art stems from the innate infection and incendiaryness of art. At the same time, some Plato’s idea are outdated in modern conception. Some neoteric philosopher such as Nietzsche and modern philosopher such as Gilles Louis René Deleuze and Jacques Derrida think that Plato’s argument of “illusion” is “Achilles Heel” which the weakness of him.

Aristotle’s Poetics

Compare to Plato’s aesthetic, Aristotle didn’t over stress the relationship between truth and illusion. But focus on the real feeling that art brings to people. He thinks that art should not be assessed by morality. What really matters is the relationships, understanding, interaction, emotions and feelings that art brings. Like Aristotle, he believed that the origin of art was imitation. But he doesn’t think art is false, or lower than reality. Aristotle thinks In poetry and tragedy, we will encounter a variety of ideas: the goal of choice, success and failure, honor and suffering, good at evil, sin and innocence. Aristotle valued the fictional nature of art. He believes that it is precisely because art is different from reality that people can appreciate the lack of attraction and pain in reality. According to Aristotle’s aesthetic concept, his “cathartic” concept was formed. It provided the foundation for ancient Greek drama.

The difference between Plato’s idea and Aristotle’s idea

Both Aristotle and Plato believed that art came from ” Mimesis.” But their attitude towards virtual is different. Plato’s attitude to virtualision is negative and immoral. Aristotle, on the other hand, believed that art should not be ethically audited. What matters is the message and emotion that art conveys. I agree with Aristotle. In today’s art iteration, Aristotle’s idea is still essential to art conception.

Works cited：

Aristotle, et al. Poetics. Harvard University Press, 1999.

Kul-Want, Christopher, and Piero. Introducing Aesthetics: a Graphic Guide. Icon Books, 2014.