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Q. DESCRIBE ARISTOTLES DEFENCE OF POETRY.

Aristotle was the great disciple of Plato, and it was he who took up the challenge of Plato at the end of
Republic to show that poetry was, not only pleasant but also useful, for man and society. Though
Aristotle never refers directly to Plato, much of the Poetics is a hidden reply to his great master.
Aristotle takes up Platos challenge and shows the value and significance of poetry in shaping the
character of the individual. The Poetics is a systematic explanation of the theory and practice of
poetry, a well-reasoned defense of Platos charges against poetry. Aristotle takes up hints and
suggestions from his great teacher, re-explains them, and gives new meaning and significance to
Platos concepts. No two individuals could differ more widely in their objectives and methods of work
than do Plato and Aristotle. This difference results in their different attitudes toward poetry:
* Plato began to recognize human life; While Aristotle set out to reorganize human knowledge.
* Plato was a philosopher and had the temperament of an artist while Aristotle was a scientist, a
biologist, an experimentalist who arrived at his principles through observation and analysis. This
describes his passion for "categories", and classification.
* Plato was an idealist. He believed that the phenomenal world is only a representation of the ideal
world. The ideal world is real while the phenomenal world is only a shadow of this ideal reality. It is,
therefore, short and unreal. Aristotle, on the other hand, believed in the reality of the world of the
senses. The world is real, and it must form the basis of any scientific or systematic study. It is on the
basis of the study and observation of particular realities that general principles can be made. Thus
Aristotle moves from the real to the ideal, from the particular to the general. His methods are logical.
In this respect, he stands at the opposite pole from Plato.
* Plato's language is poetic and charming while Aristotles is dogmatic and brief. It is the language of
private, personal notes of an intelligent teacher rather than that of a finished product.
* Aristotle makes full use of the terminology and doctrine of Plato, develops or confuses them, and on
the basis provided by them develops theories of his own. Plato was a more original genius while
Aristotle is more comprehensive and systematic.
* Plato was the first to use the word, imitation, in connection with poetry. Aristotle took the word from
his master, but he gave a new life and soul to it. Plato considered imitation merely as mimicry or a
slavish copy of nature but Aristotle interpreted it as a creative process. The poet while imitating reality
transforms it into something new and much higher. He brought the emotions within the range of
imitation.
* Plato likened poetry to painting while Aristotle likened it to music. According to Plato, poetry imitates
only surface appearances, as does a painter; according to Aristotle, poetry imitates not only the
externals, but also internal emotions and experiences.
* In Platos view, poetry presents a copy of nature as it is while according to Aristotle, poetry may
imitate men as they are, or better and worse, poetry is not concerned so much with what is, but with
what ought to be. Poetry gives us an idealised version of reality. Thus the two differ widely in their
views on poetic truth. .
* Plato condemned poetry on moral, intellectual and emotional grounds. Aristotle takes up the
objections of Plato one by one, and justifies poetry morally, emotionally and intellectually. He is the
first to use the term Katharais in connection with tragedy and this part of the Poetics is highly original
and moving. We get no corresponding theory in Plato. The theory of Katharais enables Aristotle to
demonstrate the healthy influence which poetry, in general, and tragedy, in particular, exercise over
the emotions.
* Plato had taken up the clubs on behalf of philosophy, and his purpose was to show that philosophy is
superior to poetry, and so philosophy must replace poetry in the school; Aristotle, on the other hand,
takes up the clubs on behalf of poetry and effectively brings out its superiority. In his view, poetry is to
be preferred both to history and philosophy.
* Plato, regarded the emotions as undesirable and so advocate their repression while Aristotle on the
other hand stresses the need for emotional outlets. Doubtlessly, Aristotle was more rational in this
than Plato that Emotions may be controlled and guided, but they must not be suppressed.
From whatever angle we consider Plato and Aristotle, they stand poles apart. There were radical
differences between these two minds, and,
out of this difference came the most formidable assault on poetry, and the most effective
defence of it, that has ever been known,
Lascelles Abercrombie beautifully summarises the different points of view of the two as follows: The
difference between the two may be indicated by referring to the studies in which they were specially
interested. Aristotles philosophy was coloured by his interest in biology, Platos by his interest in
mathematics. This means that Aristoles mind liked to proceed from things to ideas, Platos from ideas
to things. Aristotle had the scientific, Plato the metaphysical mind. The nature of Platos objection to
poetry is quite in accordance with the nature of his philosophy, just as Aristotles answer to that
objection according to his philosophy, and with his disapproval to Platos.
Aristotle never says that his theory is an answer to Plato; he never mentions Plato in the
Poetics, and never even touches to the Platonic objection to poetry. But his whole
argument is exactly planned to invalidate Platos argument at every point; and thus falls
in with his openly expressed opposition to Plato elsewhere.
The difference between the two minds is shown in the way they approach the very existence of poetry.
It seems a paradox to Plato that he should have been the man to condemn poetry while in his youth

he had done beautiful things in poetry and in his maturity had such perfect command of literary art
that he could present philosophy as an enchanting music of ideas. Whereas Aristotle, whose extent
works can scarcely be called literature at all, should have directed the full force of his philosophy into
the sanest and strongest justification that poetry has ever had.
Aristotle rejected Plato's theory in all spheres of his philosophy that the emotions are in themselves
bad and in particular he rejected the view that, by rousing emotions, poetry produces a dangerous
excess of these emotions in real life. Aristotle's theory of 'Catharsis' in his answer to Plato on these
points, and one of the main elements in his defence of poetry has a proper and necessary place in
human life, and, therefore, in the state.

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