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4 ideas
16565 | Without the surface decoration, poetry shows only appearances and nothing of what is real [Plato] |
Full Idea: If you strip a poet's works of their musical colorings and take them by themselves, I think you know what they look like. …We say that a maker of an image - an imitator - knows nothing about that which is but only about its appearance. | |
From: Plato (The Republic [c.374 BCE], 601a) | |
A reaction: Knowing the appearances well is more than most people can manage, and aspirations to know the true reality may be an idle dream. Poets are, I presume, welcome in the Cave. |
2160 | Representation is two steps removed from the truth [Plato] |
Full Idea: The province of representation is indeed two steps removed from the truth. | |
From: Plato (The Republic [c.374 BCE], 602c) |
2163 | Artists should be excluded from a law-abiding community, because they destroy the rational mind [Plato] |
Full Idea: We are right to refuse admission to artists in any community which is going to respect convention, because he destroys the rational mind and feeds the irrational - it is like destroying good citizens by giving ruffians power. | |
From: Plato (The Republic [c.374 BCE], 605b) |
2135 | Truth is closely related to proportion [Plato] |
Full Idea: Truth is closely related to proportion. | |
From: Plato (The Republic [c.374 BCE], 486d) |