Plato’s concept of “forms” or “ideas” is introduced beginning at paragraph 16. What is the difference between “beds in the world” and “the idea of a bed.”
The difference between the beds in the world and the idea of a bed is that the beds in the world are truthful and realistic simply because they are physical. The idea of a bed is just an imitation and not reality, something that is recreated in an image or in mind.
Where does “art” fit into his hierarchical scheme of reality?
According to Plato, there are three creators of this “bed” which also fits into his hierarchical scheme of reality: God, a carpenter, and an artist. The first level is God because he is responsible for “making” the bed, for giving the idea of the bed. The second level is the carpenter, who actually crafts the bed, and the third is the artist, who creates an image of the bed that God and the carpenter created. Through this, Plato believes that artists are deceiving us because what they are creating is untrue and false. According to Plato, “Then must we not infer that all these poetical individuals, beginning with Homer, are only imitators; they copy images of virtue and the like, but the truth they never reach? The poet is like a painter who, as we have already observed, will make a likeness of a cobbler though he understands nothing of cobbling; and his picture is good enough for those who know no more than he does, and judge only by colours and figures.” Plato explains here that artists are creating imitations and don’t know what they’re doing.
Plato criticizes art for being “deceptive.” How does art deceive us, according to Plato? Do you agree with this criticism?
Plato believes that art is deceptive because it does not represent reality, it is only an image — an idea. Now that I’ve read his thoughts, I agree with his criticism because paintings are only ideas which come from the mind. They are ideas that have been created through what the artist has seen or experience. For example, animals in paintings are not living. They are mere images and representations of what the artist sees or has seen.
It's Philosophical! 