Throughout the ages, art has been an essential part of our life. It could be found anywhere in the history of mankind. However, art has also been a popular topic among philosophers. Many great minds have theorized on the nature of art. One of the most significant thinkers who tackle the nature of art is Aristotle.

  Aristotle followed one of the most emphatic thinkers to comment on the nature of art, which was his teacher Plato. Nevertheless, most of the philosophers, just like Plato and Aristotle, they were forced to establish a theory of art based heavily on their metaphysical views about the nature of the world. Therefore, to understand Aristotle’s perspective towards art, understanding his metaphysics is crucial.

  Plato believed that all things that exist in reality are mere representations of perfect metaphysical constructs which he called the Forms. He separates the sensible world with the intelligible world because he holds that the intelligible world is the only reality. But Aristotle suggests that such separation removes any intelligibility and meaning to the world. According to him “the intelligibility is present in every being and everything. The world consists of substances. The substance can be either matter or form, or a compound of both”. 

  Since they possess their metaphysics, their perspective towards the notion of art differs. “For Aristotle, the notion of form was a part of all matter and the distinction between the form and the actual substance that made up an object was merely an intellectual one.”This bears a relation to art because for both Plato and Aristotle art is an imitation of the actual world (Palmer, pp 447-452). However, although they both thought of art as an imitation, they interpret the nature of this imitation in opposing manners. “While Plato condemns art because it is in effect a copy of a copy – since reality in imitation of the Forms and art is then imitation of reality – Aristotle defends art by saying that in the appreciation of art the viewer receives a certain “cognitive value” from the experience (Stumpf, p 99).” he saw it as useful. He believed our body needs to experience a full range of emotions to stay in balance. He argued that, if we have not been sad in a while, or had a good adrenaline rush, we can start to crave those feelings. Art can step into our life and give the experience of emotion. When we finally experience the sensations we feel a pleasurable release that Aristotle called “Catharsis”. The theory resolves a little conundrum in an aesthetic that’s known as the “Problem of Tragedy”. This is the weird puzzle of why people would be paid to walk into a theatre and are prepared to cry for two hours. This is an example of people who made themselves express strong negative emotions in a safe context and the emotional purge that comes with the experience of satisfied people. The purging of the emotions “through pity and fear”, that is accomplished by a tragedy.

Aristotle doesn’t only disagree with Plato about the notion of art. Compared to his teacher, Aristotle proceeded to a more serious investigation of aesthetics phenomena to develop by scientific analysis certain principles of beauty and art. “In his treatises on poetry and rhetoric he gives us, along with a theory of these arts, certain general principles of beauty; and scattered among his other writings we find many valuable suggestions on the same subject. He seeks (in the Metaphysics) to distinguish the good and the beautiful by saying that the former is always in action (`en praxis) whereas the latter may exist in motionless things as well (`en akinetois.)”( art andpopularculture.com) While good is derived only by taking a certain action, beauty could be derived from nothing. Aristotle has also stated his theory of beauty in the Metaphysic“The chief forms of beauty are order and symmetry and definiteness, which the mathematical sciences demonstrate in a special degree” (The Complete Works of Aristotle Barnes ed., volume 2, 1705, 1078a36)” This is which he commented to be the absence of all lust or desire in the pleasure it bestows.

  As a philosopher and an aesthetician, Aristotle had thought a lot about art. Although he maintains that art is an imitation, he holds that art is useful since it contributes to the share of negative emotions. He argued about the standard of beauty and art and gives inspiration to descendants.