Paraphrasing (Assignment # 2)

(Excerpts from Plato and Aristotle On Beauty and Imitation)


1. Aristotle on the other hand, believed that imitation involves human experience and in that sense he saw a role for the arts. According to Aristotle, the artist has the freedom to imitate aspects of nature, but he does insist on the unity of form (formal and structural qualities). Aristotle explains form in terms of its “causes” by which he means any external factor (apart from “matter”’) that explains why something is the way it is, and what function it can perform. In short, form is that which causes something to be the thing it is. So whereas Plato’s form relates to Ideal forms, Aristotle relates form to something inherent in the object.

Paraphrase:

1. Aristotle thought that imitation calls for human experience and there was a purpose for the arts in that sense. He affirmed that artists are free in imitating the aspects of nature considering the unity of their forms i.e. their structural qualities and  regarded form as an external factor that causes something to be the way it is and functions as it is. Different to what Plato believed that imitation is concerned with ideal forms, Aristotle related that form exists as an essential constituent in the object.

(Excerpts from Plato and Aristotle On Beauty and Imitation)

2. Another difference between Plato and Aristotle is the way they discuss imitation in relationship to beauty. For Plato, beauty is an idea, something abstract that is revealed in the order of the natural world. Hence the importance he placed on mathematics as the key to understanding the natural world. For Aristotle, beauty is something real, it is also a function of form, it is not abstract as for Plato, but it is grounded in an object. In other words, it is bound to a context.

Paraphrase:

2. Another contrast of ideas between Plato and Aristotle is the way they discourse the relationship of  imitation to beauty. For Plato, beauty is ideal, an intangible concept that is unveiled in the order of the natural world. In contrast to what he believed, Aristotle viewed beauty as something real and is a function of form which is bound to a context.